Children are Gods!?

Schools have reopened. It is so refreshing to see innocent and happy children going to schools. Their faces radiate hope, aspiration and confidence. Children are equated to God in most of the religions, merely because of their innocence and transparency. Children are our future citizens and the future owners of this planet. But what are we doing to them?

It is disgusting to read reports of the corruptions, misappropriations and illegal procedures that are taking place in the field of educating these innocent children. Corruption is not exclusive to India. It exists in various forms in every country. But I do not think any country would be cheating its own future citizens to this extent. In most of the developed countries school education is almost free. Children are given special status and their basic needs of food, education, health and shelter are taken care of by the Government.

It is a shame that in our country, children are the most abused and exploited lot. Hundreds of NGOs are striving to fight for the rights of the children but we hardly see any great difference. We find children doing hard labour everywhere around us. In case a few thousand children do attend the schools run by the Government, what do they really get? There are no proper buildings, no teachers, no labs and actually no proper teaching aids in these so-called schools. In many rural areas, schools hardly work. But funds are allocated in every plan towards primary education and promptly spent too. The recent report that Rs.3000 crores had been spent during the last few years in Karnataka was shocking, because the state of many Government schools speaks for itself as to where all these funds had been siphoned off! We are so cheap that even the funds allocated for mid-day meals are not spared. How can the people living such a wretched place ever prosper?

If this is the condition of the Government schools, what is the state of the thousands of private schools that mushroom in every street of the country? Running a school is the most profitable business today, especially if it contains ‘English’, ‘International’, ‘Cambridge’, ‘Oxford’, ‘Convent’, ‘Public’ and other jazzy words in its name! People start schools if they have just a two-bedroom accommodation, never mind if the building is old and dilapidated, dingy and dirty with no hygienic bathrooms, no play ground and no ventilation. In just a couple of years, the management of such schools is able to purchase huge tracts of land and construct huge buildings! How? First of all they collect hefty fees from the children. Secondly, they do not pay the teachers reasonably. Not only that, they claim grants showing higher salaries for teachers, whereas pay only lower salaries to them. Thirdly, they exploit the teachers by extracting the maximum amount of work. Fourthly, they act as agents for booksellers, garment shops, stationers and shoe companies and make it compulsory for the children to buy their uniforms, books, stationery items and shoes all of which are highly priced, only from them. Parents dread the month of May, as they have to shell out thousands of rupees to get their children re-admitted to the same schools every year and meet all their needs. Never mind if many of the work-books and note books are not even used by the children eventually!

Where is the conscience of this society, which steals its own children’s food, cheats and abuses its own children? The country can never become a ‘developed’ nation unless the future citizens are well taken care of and motivated enough to take over the reigns and administer the country.

This is the scene of only the school education. The story of college education cannot be covered in this small space. Even a child who gets introduced to strong values and culture at home and is determined to serve his country after his education suddenly turns the table and prefers to go abroad at the end of college education, as he is slowly introduced to all the evil practices of this country and he gets fed up. Is this the way we should be grooming our next generation?

Sudha Narasimhachar