All that glitters...

By Erum Hafeez

My son is hardly four. He was promoted from pre-nursery to nursery recently. His first academic year cost me Rs100,000, a lot of hard work and anxiety. Like most parents, I want my child to get the best education to ensure a bright future for him.

It all began a year ago when I frantically surveyed all accessible schools and interviewed seasoned parents among my circle of family and friends to find the perfect school for my child. Considering his age, and the lamentable public school set-up, I opted for a leading private school’s branch in Karachi in my area. After the initial formalities, I was instructed to pay a hefty amount of Rs40,000 which included the admission fee and a security deposit. After that, I had to make haste to purchase prescribed books, stationary, accessories and uniforms along with other anxious parents. It took me a dozen trips and another couple of thousand rupees to get everything ready for my child’s kindergarten experience.

On his first day of school, my husband and I accompanied him. It was more of a trial of parents than of children. Oblivious to the brightly coloured premises and made-up teachers, little kids were running and crying frantically for their mothers. The lack of planning, staff and facilities despite the tall claims made and the high cost of education was bothersome for most parents. Interestingly enough, parents were made to stand outside classes while a single lady teacher was helplessly trying to control and console two to three dozen frightened kids in each class. A handful of domestic and administrative staff present at the spot seemed puzzled and tried to comfort parents by explaining that this was a customary practice during the first few days of school.

Most of the classrooms were small and appeared congested in the absence of proper ventilation and electricity — most private schools are housed in residential bungalows without generators and air conditioners and this school was no exception to this rule. Children, thus, perspired profusely given the humid weather. Two weeks passed by and gradually the children learnt to adjust while parents tried to make their peace with the situation. However, I couldn’t help but wonder whether or not I made the right decision by sending my toddler to school at such a tender age.

Soon I came to know that with a few exceptions, most teachers in this highly reputable school are mere graduates. They neither have professional training, nor the necessary experience to handle little kids. Thus, they usually rely on the trial-and-error method. An extremely low criteria for teachers is common in most schools, evident from job advertisements for Montessori and junior schools teachers which appear in newspapers.

Most parents enroll their children in these posh English-medium schools so that they can speak and write English fluently. However, I hardly found any teacher who had strong language skills. Most private school teachers rely on artificial accents and a colloquial style to impress parents in meetings while in classrooms children are exposed to incorrect language.

Within a few days, I noticed horrifying changes in my son. He turned rowdy and impolite with each passing day. When he started using expressions that bordered on obscene, I approached his class teacher but she showed ignorance, refused to accept any responsibility and blamed a few kids from uncivilized families for spoiling others. The lack of professionalism and sense of responsibility in most teachers is because of the fact that they take up teaching as pastime and as an added source of income. Moreover, the tactics that these private schools employ to attract their clients (parents) through cosmetic measures like highly decorated classrooms, extra-curricular activities, meetings, publications and assessments consume most of their teachers’ time and energy. Thus, they hardly take interest in their pupils’ progress.

Since Montessori is the child’s first exposure to the world outside, they need a facilitator and a friend for confidence-building. However, every second day I had to remind my son’s teacher to send him to bathroom after break, as he is partly potty-trained. Soon, I learnt that I had to please the school maid with regular bakshish (tip) and clothes if I cared about my child’s health and hygiene.

The class teacher hardly noticed whether a child needed help wiping his/her nose or washing hands for that matter. She also didn’t seem to care whether or not children ate lunch or drank water throughout the day and often left it to their will. All this was highlighted all the more when children had a birthday party and spoilt their clothes and faces with food stains.

No doubt, it is impossible for a single teacher to take care of every child when she does not have an assistant to control the hyper tots. However, the school administration believed in economy of manpower. On every complaint, parents were told that they were the only ones who have problems while the others were pretty pleased with the entire set-up.

Unfortunately, all this adversely affected my son and he became disinterested with school. He often complained about his teachers’ negligence, harsh words and bullies. For him, the only attraction is his friends from whom he managed to learn bullying tactics to defend himself.

When the things got out of control, I decided to draw teachers’ attention towards serious matters through frequent notes in school diary. Consequently, I was labelled as a nosy parent. Thankfully, it did make the teacher a little conscious of her language and she also separated my child from the mischief-makers.

In the meanwhile, co-curricular activities started in school. In the name of charity events for earthquake victims, parents were pushed into contributing thousands of rupees through tickets. Despite extravagant preparations, most events disappointed both students and parents as they lacked creativity, organisation and participation on part of the students.

Throughout the first year of my child’s academic life, I desperately felt the need for a platform for concerned parents especially when I learnt that most of us are in the same boat. However, most parents are reluctant to voice their concerns as they are afraid of the consequences. On the other hand, the authorities can’t dictate anything to private schools even though they keep on increasing their monthly fee periodically along with taking the tuition fee in advance.

It is only parents, clients of these private businesses, who can question and control them. Parents can get together and establish an organised parents’ council or association where parents can gather fearlessly to check and balance the school administration and staff initiatives, monitor their kid’s academic progress and counter the highhandedness of private school mafia regarding fund-raising and money-making tactics.

The writer is a freelance contributor

Did you know?

• That the average monthly fee for kindergarten for most privates schools range anywhere between Rs. 4,000-6,000.
• There is one kindergarten teacher for a class of about 40 children in most schools.
• The entire school day for children that young comprises three hours at the most.
• Most teachers learn how to handle children that young on the job.
• Kindergarten teachers often resort to corporal punishment.
• Nine out of 10 parents feel like their children are not doing anything productive when in Montessori.
• Nine out of 10 kindergarten students in most private schools are exposed to some form of expletive in class before the age of five.

(Courtesy: “Dawn”; Sept. 3, 2006)