A letter to PM Modi - from a 10 year old
This is a copy of a letter written by a ten-year-old in 2016 to the Prime Minister of India, after hearing he could change things ....these are the things the child wants to be changed....maybe ...the author chooses to remain anonymous at this point ...
I am here to tell you how our education systems are and how it can be better. I have written this to you after asking many people about their schools and doing a lot of research work on how education in different countries are conducted and how our brains work.
The reason I think these problems are there is that schools want to show parents they do a lot of work. So problems that come over here are:
1. Copying because schools want to show complete worksheets. So math calculations, science answers, language essays are all copied so we do not use our brains and hence do not understand, leading to many doubts not cleared.
2. Mugging up because schools find it the easiest way to teach: They do not spend time explaining. Hence, we forget what we learnt after the exam. We become very close-minded and our logical reasoning does not take place. Mugging up makes it easier for the school to give marks and then parents are happier. But the pupils do not understand anything.
3. Lots of exams add pressure to the students, teachers do not entertain doubts; do not tell anything extra not even any tricks to remember because they think it is a waste of time. For questions driven by curiosity, they tell it is not coming for the exam.
The reason I think these problems are going on is that teachers are not trained or interviewed. They might be tested in front of a teacher for one day where one can easily act for a job.
1. They do not have good teaching methods- so pupils get lost in the subject. The pupils might understand something else and start to hate the subject because they are so confused.
2. At times they give really bad and obscene punishments in front of the whole class because they do not love kids and find it the only way to handle kids.
3. Teachers bully students and when other students bully students, they do nothing-maybe because they find their job very bad; when there are complaints from the parents the teachers take revenge on their students or they do not love students and think they do not need to work hard think they will just get their money with no work.
4. Children with disorders get punished- teachers/schools give punishments to children with disorders as they do not know about them and other students also laugh and bully them.
The reason I think these problems are going on is that schools are commercial:
1. They do lots of advertising so it sounds a lot of fun but when you go over there they will be very strict with very less extracurricular activities and the students will then be very unhappy.
2. They make parents pay a lot for the best facilities but they are either not constructed or not there most of the times.
3. They think they can rule over the kids. As they know their parents will be rich they go on demanding more fees and do nothing. As parents are busy they will not listen to their children about what is happening to them. So the parents might do nothing and the school keeps on going worse.
These problems are because parents do not spend time with their kids:
1. Children do not know a lot about them and do not tell them what is happening in their lives. So if the child is doing wrong things they will not be guided. If the child needs help it will not ask.
2. Parents also sometimes knowingly do not talk to their kids even if they have the time. So children might also feel really angry. Parents think their children are very talkative which is bad according to them.
3. Busy parents might scold their children for doing nothing wrong. Parents also find all the ways not to answer kids’ questions or tell them not to ask questions.
These problems are because parents and teachers demotivate children:
1. Children feel scared of their parents/teachers. If a child gets scared of somebody he/she meets every day, life is scary. They will try to hide as many things as possible, stay as far as possible. Then who will they learn from?
2. Feel angry with their parents/teachers. If someone feels angry with the person who they are going to learn with. They will learn from no one.
3. Think they are good for nothing thus do not work hard.
4. They do not focus at things they are good at so the things they are good at, they become even worse in.
These problems are there because parents want to be promoted:
1. They stay in the office doing nothing, leaving their children all alone. This leads to children might go into wrong paths in education or in values.
2. If the children our young, they will be left with drivers or maids who will not behave properly with them. Or they will keep them with their grandparents who will need some care. Then they have nobody to talk to.
3. They might have a lack of attention so start behaving angrily or rudely or they might cry. They might again be scolded at if they behave rudely or angrily. Children might have something desperately they want to say but may not. It is scientifically proven that when one is happy he/she will learn best.
4. Some children do not even recognize their parents because they might be in the office chatting, playing video games or rarely working.
These problems are because children are too busy studying that they do not play:
1. Maturity starts at a very young age. So children behave adult-ish not enjoying childhood as much.
2. Children stay unhealthy. Unhealthy people cannot do things healthy people do. Our physical health leads to our mental health.
3. Children are bad socialists and do not have friends. They do not have people to ask questions. Not have anybody to feel happy with. If they do not feel happy they will not learn.
4. Children do not get good memory it is needed for learning things; the children need oxygen.
These problems are because children go to school very regularly:
1. They do not relax/sleep things that help a lot.
2. Do not continue what they were doing they might be playing, thinking about going to school early the next morning or the thought of an exam. Not continuing what they are doing reduces interest by not exploring more they think there is less to explore.
3. Sick children do not recover quickly because of less rest and will spread more viruses. Ill people do not study well.
4. Trips or places that are more educational than the school they will miss. So they may not see or show something interesting practical or important.
The reason I think that these problems are going on is that teachers are not respected:
1. Teachers are not heard. So the students do not learn.
2. Teachers can be harassed physically. Which will affect teachers and will concentrate more on emotions than on teaching.
3. It is a two ways treat students do not behave properly the teacher will start behaving rudely
The reason I think these problems are going on is that children go for tuitions. Even universities have tuitions;
1. Children get lots of workload from them they have exams and homework themselves. So children do not get time to sleep or spend time with their families.
2. They stick to the core do not want to study for anything except for the exams making them closed minded.
Are any of these things wrong? Asking questions, writing our own answers, being creative, having disorders? No, none of them are. So I have got a list of suggestions for you:
1. A teacher’s aim shall be to make a student like a subject and also get a teacher who likes that job so they will not just forcefully come and go doing nothing.
2. We shall explain to parents that exams do not check a child’s learning. It only gives marks. They should also be told what is happening in the schools. They shall be told how kids learn. I do not mean to say exams are not important or fun. I mean to say the way we are studying is not good we shall make exams fun we could make them show what they learned by teaching someone else, making activities for someone else, making questions, making reports where they can draw color to make it fun, important and reasonable.
3. Teachers should be given half an hour a week to research on teacher training or their subject.
4. Students shall give monthly feedback on their teachers which shall be read out to the principle.
5. There shall be a chapter on disorders that will be learned in the beginning of the year.
6. At the end of each day, the students shall discuss what was done in the school in the terms of bullying what should they have done, what would the other person have felt even the teachers shall discuss.
7. It shall be every parent’s right not to pay the full school fees if they find the school lying in any way.
8. Complexes shall note down the number of children they shall make sure they come to play for one hour. Also, cultural activities shall be increased.
9. Offices shall be open for only 8 hours or home office shall start people spend around 5 hours travel time to the office and back in both the places they shall be given aims to complete. On Saturday and Sunday offices shall not be open and nobody shall work, people shall work only if they want to.
10. It shall be compulsory for a student to be absent for 30 days a year after explaining to them and parents why. If they do not take holidays at the end of the year, the teacher shall reduce their school days.
Children need to learn for less time but do good work.
So let us keep a school for five and a half hours. Where one hour is studying the next half an hour could be an architecture which teaches math or inventions which teaches science and math or story writing or reading which teach a language.
But for teenagers with disorders, there shall be something outdoor and kids with learning disabilities or sleeping problems school shall start at 11 am for them as it is scientifically proven that learning then is most effective.
These are five more ways I think can help, these are changing the education system completely so will be difficult to execute.
1. I have been reading the faraway series by Enid Blyton lately. There are three poor children who go to mysterious places and they have loads of fun there. So I was thinking of whether we could make kids keep theme parks or adventure places made by them this is also educational with making toffees and doing architecture. But to keep a few learning basics they will together sit in a circle and discuss what they learned. The discussions shall be done in groups. We can call poor people to the parks made by the other children so even they will enjoy and will not feel hungry and they too will learn from exploring.
2. My other idea is if we could get people who live close by and make them do educational projects, reading writing together it will be more fun as then they will be closed and will understand each other more but if they are enemies it will be a big problem so they shall also be allowed to leave a group and be solo. In groups they will organize more things and will be more creative they can choose what they want to study or we can appoint a few people who will make a weekly topic and will announce it. This shall be there especially for sick children.
3. My third idea is if we could keep programs where we come to know a child’s liking, group children accordingly but first we need to show them all the different things it could be the study of education, literature, arts, sports, architecture, game making, technology, archaeology, what all could it be let us motivate them instead of demotivating what they are bad at and making them do those things all the time instead of being happy and doing what they want. How much can one excel and feel happy? In the groups, they shall spend one-hour sports, one-hour basics, two hours on what they like rest 1 ½ of 5 ½ can be used for assembly’s discussion on their groups seeing more jobs, leadership classes, project work. This can be done in societies or schools
4. We have 4 necessities- food, clothing, shelter, and education. Many people are not getting those necessities. What if we could divide children into 4 groups each group will take care of one necessity and we can also make the world a better place that way we can also let them help countries abroad later. Then we can let pupils add things for fun such as toys, fairs, libraries, game centers, and malls.
5. This is an idea for a public school we will get people, talk to them for two months in Hindi to get them to communicate. Then we can make them grow crops and make inventions or creations to help the plants grow. And make them get ideas from others by reading newspapers or books we can create a thing like ‘give a child a chance to learn before giving your newspapers or books to the raddi’. Then later they can start selling the organic props.
If we could make Wednesday and Sunday holidays for workers and students, they could plan their day out better than Saturday and Sunday.
Education is such an important thing if everybody is educated there can be more dreams and more dreams fulfilled so then handicapped will get more facilities, our India will become cleaner and greener, the poor will get food to eat, and people will get medical help. The world will be happier if there are more friends to meet and play with. Just that one thing education can change our lives.
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