Balancing EDUCATION

THERE ARE MANY ALTERNATIVES IN EDUCATION THESE DAYS.

- BY GOOLBAI GUNASEKARA

GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS WHICH TEACH THE LOCAL SYLLABUS IN ENGLISH (AND WRONGFULLY DUB THEMSELVES INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS,) AND INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS OFFFERING BRITISH EXAMS. THESE OPTIONS BEGINS FROM GRADE ONE ITSELF AND THIS VARIEGATED SYSTEM IS ACCEPTED IN OUR COUNTRY.

In all of them the extracurricular alternatives these days are many and varied......far too many and too varied in my opinion. In fact the many choices facing students these days, in the nonacademic areas, are bewildering in extreme. For one thing, parental expectations begin to focus on their offspring from the moment of birth. No parent waits for talent to manifest itself before enrolling toddlers in Ballet, Art, Speech classes, Singing lessons, Sport etc, when they have barely passed the toddler stage.

Protesting children are dragged from one teacher to another as soon as school is over. Parental ambition knows no bounds. Distinctions have to be gained in those London based Ballet, Dancing and Speech exams if all the expense is to be justified. (And believe me those classes do not come cheap.) Places on School Teams have to be achieved in Sport. House Captainships, Prefectships, Games Captainships and of course hopefully Head Prefectships have to be attained.

What was the modus operandi in my time? We marched to a totally slower and less measured drum beat.

Of course there were Ballet, Art and Speech classes but they were used more as methods to occupy our free time rather than to aim at high achievement. After all there was precious little for us to do outside school. There was no Television, no Video Games, no Mobile phones, no IPads - and even the ordinary, humble telephone was usually kept locked. Extra curriculars deserved their name. They filled in the EXTRA time which prevented dastardly teenage doings in other (usually romantic) directions!