If Kids Ruled The World

Children are the future, but we never really take their opinions into account when planning for them.

- Blessy Augustine

Have you ever wondered what a 13-year-old would do if he was in charge of our space mission? Or how a 15-year-old would go about promoting world peace? For our Children’s Day Special, 10 kids from around the country share their hopes and vision for the road ahead. Grown-ups, take note!

Minister for books and education

Sahar Beg, 15 years, Delhi

IF I WERE THE MINISTER for books and education, I would make sure that students had a lot more freedom than they do at the moment, which is close to none.

School and community libraries would always be open and have books on a large variety of subjects—skateboarding, oceanology, origami. Libraries would be organized and have an online archive so that no book goes missing.

Instead of having separate subjects in school, there would be projects that combine various topics, so that students won’t just be memorizing facts, but also understanding how things affect them in real life.

A project on how houses are built would mean that students see where the materials come from and what all goes into the making of homes. They would be able to understand the economics and how interconnected everything is—how many work hours construction workers and architects put in, and how much they are paid; the geography of the place and how it affects decisions about design and materials; how plumbing and electrical wiring are done; how they all affect climate change and what their carbon footprints are.