I have been running an after school hours for
underprivileged children in my village for the last three years and finally
this year the children sat for their Punjab board exams and I was as anxious as
if they were my exams. No surprise, the girls came first and topped their
individual schools in and around the five kilometer vicinity. The boys also did
well, securing first divisions and that gave them an extra edge over the rest
of the village boys. They were simply better. The change in their personality and
demeanor as they were something was visible and apparent.
Next came the question of what to choose, what stream
to follow. The dreams are big. One wants to become an automobile engineer, his
father is the local in house Baba. The father gets mass weddings done for poor girls!
His is a story for another day, One of them wants to join the police force and
become an IPS officer, mind you when you see her, you see this mouse of a girl
but the fire burning in her eyes, makes you believe in her grit. There are many who want to join the police or
the armed forces seeing it to be the deliverance from poverty and to be assured
of a steady income. Facing the enemy’s bullet doesn’t deter them. There is one
who dreams of being a Master Chef, and seeing her you know how much the West
has invaded us1
Are these dreams doable? Do they seem attainable for
children who studied under aboard that teaches them in Punjabi, doesn’t bother
with compulsory attendance, passes them till the standard 8th, and
relies mainly on set questions that are learnt by rote and answered and ensures
inflated imaginary results.
But, the rude shock is when these children stand
nowhere. They do not fit into any commerce, medical or non – medical stream. Citing
results, and displaying a few pictures does not encompass the whole scenario of
the children who pass out but have no future. How many children form rural
background of Punjab actually became a Doctor, engineer or an accountant or
became a direct commissioned officer? Why do we let them dream and then we
snatch them away from them cruelly, jerking them and throwing them into a
menial cesspool of ordinary jobs. I don’t debase any ordinary work, someone has
to do them so that the wheels of the society turn, but here the majority is
sucked into this. How do I explain a child that just because he want pushed
enough by his government teacher and he was told to study by “guides (a
parallel industry is based on these) earmarked specific questions that he
cannot compete with the rest in the college?
It just keeps on getting worse; the sports players are playing sports
that don’t even have a mention in the national games roster. What is an
American game doing in the heartland of Punjab that is known as the cradle of
our national game hockey? Who plays baseball, any way? Babe Ruth Singh.
I am as guilty as my ministers and the educationists
who sit in some hallowed halls of Chandigarh or the great seats of learning who
have set up a school board that is far removed from reality.
The old age saying and the Biblical meaning ‘ spare
the rod, spoil the child ‘ is what is coming back to haunt us. When are we
going to sit up and take notice of the rot in our education system? Asking my
children who look up to me for paving their future by respectable white collared
jobs to do diploma courses, or enhance them selves by skill development courses
just sends a message that I am also as guilty as the rest plus I fail like the
rest asking them to settle for second best.
Punjabis, just don’t know how to settle for second
best. It in in our nature to persevere and persevere we shall…
No comments:
Post a Comment