Spry Saturday

I was witness to so many happenings today. In the morning, I got up a little early and went for a walk with father. He was comparatively cheerful, today. 

Around 10:00 AM I participated in a meeting which was aiming to transform teachers from good teachers to better teachers. I participated actively, responding to the resource person's queries. 

Around 11:30 I called up the carpenter to work on puja room door. The puja room or rather puja cupboard had been waiting for the past two years for a door. 

After having a tasty and sumptuous meal which included brinjal fry with tomato rasam. I took a short nap. 

In the evening, we went to visit our mama and my brother who came from Bengaluru. They also came to our place and visited my parents, my daughters were busy telling them about their encounter with caterpillars and butterflies and other occupations during this Covid-19 times. Then they had dinner which included dosai, rasam rice with appalam and buttermilk. 

Friday thoughts

Today, I had a good day, there was not much pressure from the students side. Every thing went as per plan. I saw the news item where our chief minister said, "parents only to decide whether students can go to school".

I was wondering, what if parents decide against sending their wards to school? The teachers will have tough time, trying to handle both online and offline classes. Already, in one news, the education minister has said, online classes are not good enough, the teacher must teach everything to students once they come back to school.

Now, let us assume that all the schools are private. Parents will have to follow what the management says. Ofcourse, there will be government orders for all to follow. There will be the right of the parent to decide whether the student should go to school or not. There will be competition among schools to excel in various areas. There will not be comparison among students, that this student is from government school or this student is from public school. At the job front also comparison among staff will get reduced. 

The parent will say my ward is attending NEET / IIT coaching from Aakash, or Byju, or fiitjee or some other coaching institute, how nice it will be to hear such things? 

A student coming from government school will have a low self esteem compared to public school student. A government school student will exhibit less confidence than his public school counterpart. A government school student will look for jobs at entry levels, whereas a public school student will think of becoming entrepreneur. A government school student will talk about hardships in life, a public school student will talk about having fun in life. The Government school student will always express shortcomings in life whereas a public school student will exhibit gratitude for every thing in life.

Robert kayosaki says, poor must be made poorer, only then the other can remain rich. In democracy, the capitalist is the King, the rich political class will only cater to themselves. I will not be surprised, if Mukesh Ambani becomes President of this country in a few years from now. The government will stop 3% cess for higher education. How nice!

Anyway let's enjoy the days.

Thunderous Thursday

Yesterday, we had parents teachers meet for the ninth standard students. Only a week before, they had finished an online cum offline exam. The marks obtained by some were encouraging, while others were highly discouraging. The reasons were, the parents took their own sweet time to procure books and notebooks for there wards. In spite of our repeated calls to them, they were dragging there feets. Because of the attitude of the parents, the students suffered. The students were very irregular. Some joined the online classes only two weeks before the exam. The result was there for all of us to see.

We started classes for IX as early as May 2020. The first test was conducted only last week. Most of the business establishments are running since July. But, for the interference of the government, things would not have been so bad. By now, they could have opened classes until grade seven, if only, they knew how to handle things during pandemic. The Covid-19 has definitely exposed our entire government machinery, failure to learn from our history has hurt us very badly. 

This is the right time to set many things right. The other day, I was wondering, why are we still persisting with our so called, 'Diversities'? If not for the shallow thinking political class, we would have been in a better position. In these, 70+ years of freedom, we have become more divergent, instead of coming closer as a nation, we are still bent on protecting those pillars which are creating differences among us. Gandhiji's idea of freedom was, A lady walking on the street in the middle of night, with all the ornaments on. How many of us will even think of sending our daughters in broad daylight to the shop in the street? 

One solution, could be to break up all states and divide them in to union territories. 

Secondly, privatize all the educational institutions. Why should we privatize schools? For the same reasons, which is prompting government to privatize, public sector undertakings. The presence of government schools is actually creating a barrier to better education. Ofcourse, the new education policy 2020 is attempting to address many issues, but with out structural changes, these will remain on paper only.

In the name of free education, the government is sacrificing development. How can we promote sustainable development, when we are giving a lot things for free? Of course, we end up paying more for some other things. Then, how can we provide quality education to so called under privileged people? 

Terrific Tuesday

In the morning, I prayed for a perfect day. It was very calm, compared to yesterday. Today I had only two classes.

Later in the day. I went out buy something. It was very hot and humid. I was wondering about the future of private schools. Now that, a GO has come stating that it is not compulsory to attend online classes. It is the responsibility of the teacher alone to complete the portion for those students who are not able to attend the online classes, once the school reopens. 

The position of the teachers in a private school is always very bad. When will the Government lay some rules, so that, the teachers in private school are not harassed. The management always tends to make these teachers do some unreasonable work. 

The result is, the teacher leaves and creates a situation, where other teachers are required to fill in and do additional duties of the teacher who left. This further creates pressure on the already punished teachers. The situation now is even more bad, because every where private school teachers are facing the same issues. 

I read a news item today, a government school math teacher has bought 16 smartphones for his students in 10th grade. Ofcourse, the students are happy, teachers are able to cater to the needs of there students, they are happy,  creating happy classrooms. 

There are other news items, which suggest that since students are poor they can not afford phones. Why the teachers in these schools also can do the same, what is stopping them?

On the other hand private school is dependent on fees from the students alone. These teachers are getting only 50 % or less of their regular pay. How can these teachers create happy classrooms? 

When the government is making policies, it should be fair to everyone. If the private school has to survive, they need to open immediately, and see that students are engaged at school in a proper manner with all the SOPs in place. 

The Government must allow schools to open to stop further damage to teachers especially in private schools. Or they must allow fee collection for the online classes.

I hope some sense prevails. The media should also pay more attention to the schools and there condition, rather than highlighting one sided reports against teachers. 

Anyway, I need to leave everything to God.

That's all for today.

Thank you 😊.

Magnificient Monday

By the Brahman, for the Brahman, to the Brahman!

Today, in the morning, I prayed to God that, everything that I lay my hands on, should work for me. I should be able to complete the job with satisfaction. It should give me immense peace of mind. 

At first, I thought I was prepared for every situation. When I switched on the laptop, it opened and got connected to net. Then after completing the job I switched off the system. 

Later when the class was there, I switched it on. It didn't respond. Then I tried two - three times, it did not work out. So I used my phone and completed the class without any further problems. Then I went to buy vegetables, the shop was open with very no customers. I finished my purchase and came back on time for the next class. 

Later in the evening, I was preparing for the class, I forgot about a meeting which I was supposed to attend. Then later when I called up the facilitator, just to apologise, he felt very bad. And expressed his displeasure about my inability to attend. I also felt very bad, but whatever happened I cannot change. Anyway, I have to do something about my forgetting.

That's all for today.

Thank you.