Over the course of 12 years, we spent more than 20000 hours at school (6hrs a day, 6 days a week). That’s the equivalent of a full-time job we have come to detest in adulthood for how much time it takes away from our lives. And you add the time to commute to it, due to the lack of so-called good schools, you are spending another hour and a half commuting daily. It begs the question: Are we taking schooling too seriously? For the time it is taking away from a kid’s childhood?
What is schooling supposed to achieve? The aim of schooling is to equip the kids with fundamental skills like reading, writing, the ability to do some maths, and a general understanding of other subjects such as history, political science, physics, etc. Does it really require 20000 hours to achieve this? Given the curriculum, we come out of school absolutely hating many subjects due to rote-learning methods or bad teaching styles. Another function of the school is to teach kids how to make friends and interact with people their age. This is a better argument in favor of in-person schooling than teaching fundamental skills, which could be made shorter through interesting and engaging ways of teaching.
And to add salt to the wound is the concept of homework. Spending 6 hours in person wasn’t enough for the day, and you need to work on the lessons for an additional 2-3 hours at home. And this is not it! Parents enroll their kids for private tutoring or coaching classes as early as class 1st. Parents are confused about the point of additional help. Don’t send your kids to coaching if they score well at school. And conversely, if the kid is struggling, before putting them in coaching, try to understand what the issue is. Maybe your kid isn’t fitting well in the school, or they don’t like the teacher’s method. Indian parents are taking coaching as a one-size-fits-all solution they can blindly follow to absolve their responsibility.
What’s left in a kid’s life after all this? I have relatives still in middle school who go to school on weekdays and full-day coaching classes on weekends. They have dropped going to play. I have a cousin who’s in 1st standard and has a personal tutor! The days are absurdly packed, and there’s hardly time for leisure.
Let the kids play for an hour. Let the kids relax and watch TV. Take them on a trip every few months. Indian parents won’t take a trip because their kids will miss school for a week? And somehow, missing a week of school is catastrophic?? Parents are locking themselves up too in the process, living a very rigid life until their kids are in school. If you have to put them in a class, put them in a singing class or a sports camp. Take schools less seriously, and don’t let it take away childhood.