Special classes not so ‘special’ after all!

Charminar: Common Entrance Tests (CETs), JEEs, CATs and what not - competitive era is growing leaps and bounds and students are left with the shorter end of stick. In particular, schoolchildren are increasingly bearing the brunt as they are “forced” to stay after hours at schools in the name of ‘schoolchildren’ and ‘study hours’. Many schools in the Old City have the said practice that puts unnecessary burden on the children leaving them no time to spend with family or friends.

The actual school hours stipulated by the State government is 7 hours 15 minutes for higher classes however; the managements are forcing students stay for at least eight hours or more. In some schools, students of higher classes are forced to stay and study up to 8pm. This is not only making studies cumbersome for students, but they are unable to handle the pressure meted out by the managements.

Iqbal Rizwi, a school administrator from the Old City, said that some institutions were resorting to asking students to attend school during general holidays as well thus ruining their free time. He said that many a times, teachers won’t attend during the school hours and conduct ‘special classes’ after hours.

Some students staged protest a while ago in the Old City against this practice. Parents are also irked by the increased number of hours at schools. Mujahid Ahmed from Purani Haveli said that his son goes to school at 8am and returns only after 7pm. “I feel that this is putting a lot of pressure on him and school managements need to bring down their working hours”, he lamented.

However, school managements maintain that they need to ask the students to stay after hours since many parents would not be able to focus on their studies at home. Aqeel Ahmed, administrator of a private school in Old City, said that people generally do not focus on their children as to what they study after school.

He said, “There are lot of issues at homes like lack of space, study ambience among others. School managements ask students to stay after hours for focused classes in the school.”

Even as reports of students committing suicide due to immense pressure rendered on them are making the rounds for months now, managements continue the practice on one or the other grounds. With elementary education numbers of India dwindling at the global level, it seems a far-fetched dream to attain the Sustainable Development Goal number 4, ‘Quality Education’ by 2030 especially given the aforementioned ‘unsustainable’ practices.