Sunday 2 September 2018

A Living Example


I am not a frequent movie-goer; but last month I deliberately went to the cinema to watch the Hindi movie "Sanju." I had also read bits and pieces about Sanjaya Dutta, the famous Bollywood movie actor whose life is at the centre of the film's plot, and I was attracted towards this movie because I figured I could go through his life story in a matter of hours.
I found the movie a living example of not giving up hope in life no matter what happens; be it good or bad. Every Bollywood movie-watcher knows who Sanjaya Dutta is on screen. But in real life he is none other than one of the common humans who commits mistakes now and again and gets back on his feet with continuous efforts and faces numerous ups and downs in the course of living. Yet, the beauty of Sanju's life is that he accepts all the consequences of his mistakes gracefully; he strives to come out of the adverse situations he faces as a better and stronger person.
Anybody is happy to share their bright side to the world but one needs guts to share their dark side and Sanjaya Dutta seems to have those guts.
The first massive blow hit the actor when he fell prey to drugs at a crucial time in his life when he was just about to begin his acting career. It took him a long time to come out clean from his drug addiction; and during this time he obviously went through a painful emotional upheaval.
Sanjaya Dutta has exemplified that it is possible to be free from drugs if you really want to. In the movie, there is a scene when a doctor at the rehabilitation centre gives a long list of drugs to Sanju and asks him to tick the names of drugs that he has used, and making the doctor as well as the movie-watchers gape, he ticks all of them.  This all proves that he was a heavy drug addict and it was not easy for him to quit drugs just like that. However, once he realised he did not want to take drugs any more, he started to move towards the process of improvement with his dedication and determination; eventually he succeeded too.
Another misfortune of Sanju's life was that he was name-tagged as a terrorist as he was rumoured to be involved in the Mumbai bombings and he was arrested for the same reason. Although he admitted that he possessed a gun for security reason, he never admitted to being a terrorist. As a good civilian he cooperated with the court's decision and went to the jail. He, however, never stopped fighting for justice and was duly rewarded as the Supreme Court gave its verdict that Sanjaya Dutta was not a terrorist.
These two major incidents created a lot of controversies. Apart from Sanju, his family also suffered unnecessarily. Finally, everything got settled and these days Sanjaya Dutta is living a dignified life.
The movie may have flaws if it is reviewed critically but nobody can deny the fact that Sanjaya Dutta's story presented via "Sanju" is inspiring and it can give a new hope to the people who are on the path of destructions and have lost all hopes to get back to their normal life.

           (Published in The Rising Nepal on Friday, June 22, 2018 under the title "Beyond Textbooks 

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Wednesday 27 June 2018

Complaint Makers

Research suggests that children’s learning is aided by collaboration between the school and parents in order to educate them. Unfortunately, people in some communities in Nepal still believe that it is not their responsibility to work with their children’s school for the sake of the children’s welfare. They, instead, think the school should take sole responsibility for the training of their wards. Therefore, the parents are looking for opportunities to find faults in the school system all the time. 

It, of course, is a parental right to make complaints if they are not satisfied with any of the programmes that the school runs; some of their complaints can absolutely be genuine for the school’s further improvement. However, one does not deny the fact that there is a group of parents who love to speak against the school incessantly in vain. I prefer to name this bunch a “chronic complainers.” 

There are many examples of nonsense complaints supplied by these chronic complainers that I have experienced and I can present some of them here.

Let me begin with a mother whose three-year old daughter has not developed her speaking skills to the same level as other children in her class. The mother enters the school furiously and blames teachers, “They have not taught my daughter to speak fluently!” This complaint stuns me. I try my best to convince her, “It entirely depends on individual children to develop speaking; some learn this skill early and some a little late and children’s spoken language (mother tongue) fully develops when they reach the age of five.” 

Even though she listens to me, by observing her facial expressions, I can sense that she is doubtful. She may be thinking, I guess, how come this happens! Other children at her girl’s age can speak and why not her daughter? The school must not be teaching appropriately to make her child speak fluently.

Another parent, whose child’s learning ability is quite slow, grumbles that she has changed her daughter’s school three times (please mind that the girl is just six years old) but teachers at all three schools are the same because they cannot teach her daughter properly. Changing schools time and again, the poor lady cannot understand that her daughter will learn gradually and at her own pace; instead she thinks it is the school’s duty to make her child a quick learner in the blink of an eye and that the school teachers are useless if they fail to make that happen.
The third parent comes to school complaining about the fact that he teaches his five year old son until 10 pm every night, yet the teachers cannot teach him correctly as he is unable to do his homework. This complaint makes me wonder why the father wants teachers to teach his son to do his homework if he himself is so dedicated to teaching his son. Can’t he see that the boy needs time to develop his academic skills?

What is more surprising is that it has not even been three months since their children have started school this session and the parents want them to be academically superb. In contrast, I can observe how hard these little ones are trying to fit into a completely new environment whilst trying to learn different things at the same time.

(Published in The Rising Nepal on Friday, June 22, 2018 under the title "Beyond Textbooks 
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Wednesday 20 June 2018

More than Textbooks

Even though the school curriculum in Nepal has emphasised the holistic approach to teaching, it has rarely been realised in practice. The holistic approach mainly covers children’s development in physical, mental, emotional, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual dimensions. This approach focuses on preparing students to meet any challenge that they may face in life and in their academic career. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, teachers must be able to integrate these aspects together.

If you observe any typical Nepali classroom, you can find a teacher focusing more on students’ academic excellence. I think it is a privilege for someone who gets the opportunity to observe the same thing in different contexts so that they can compare on the basis of firsthand experience. I am privileged to have had the opportunity to observe both the Nepali and Australian education systems closely. This has helped me explore differences between these systems. While talking about the holistic approach, an example from an Australian primary school may provide an insight into how this approach can be integrated into the school programme. This dates back to the time when my son was studying in Grade 5 at a state school in Victoria, Australia. I used to go to his school every day to pick him up. He used to share his school experience with me on the way to home. One day he was telling me about what he had learned at school. 

He informed me that Mrs. G., his teacher, taught them about physical and mental changes that the senior primary school students (Years 5 and 6) were going through. He said at this stage their mood is zigzagging, not quite a straight line like it used to be when they were younger due to their changing hormones. It is natural to get angry at this age and it is also natural to be unfocused on parents’ questions. He further added, sometimes, to be forgetful is all right as well. He was trying to justify that whatever he would do that I did not like, was not his fault, instead it was his stage that compelled him to do so. At his stage, swinging mood was normal but not to feel that way was absolutely abnormal. My son was in fact telling me about early teen-age psychology. After listening to him I asked, “What do children expect from the parents or how can parents support them?” He snapped, “You should not bother me if I look tired or stressed. Parents let their children deal with their tension themselves. If children need parents’ help they themselves approach parents; not vice versa. If we feel tense, we can release this tension by hitting the pillow or some soft surface.” 

I reckon this personal story is of high educational value. Students’ well-being is a part of the holistic approach to teaching and to let them know about their age-specific psychology is very important. This helps them to learn about themselves and to cope with the challenges they will face in their life whether it is academic or non-academic in nature.

Schools in Nepal hardly address such issues; they focus largely on teaching lessons contained within prescribed textbooks, which will prepare students to perform well in their examinations. However, academic proficiency is but one among a myriad of aspects when it comes to educating the young minds.

(Published in The Rising Nepal on Friday, June 8, 2018 under the title "Beyond Textbooks 
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Thursday 14 June 2018

Encountering Death

It happens when you least expect and no matter how old your loved one is, when they die you are always caught by surprise – I read this somewhere and I related quite strongly to this saying once again (the same happened two times before when I lost my parents within a time span of 15 months) a couple of weeks ago.
The day was as ordinary as the earlier ones and my mother-in-law was in a jolly mood. I chatted with her for nearly two hours that afternoon. Her health was also in a stable condition. Four months ago we had nearly lost her; but her strong willpower helped her to survive a massive heart attack at that time.
She had a lot of stories to share with us which were from different places in Nepal and Bhutan where she travelled with her family in search of a better life, particularly for her children.
Being a working woman, I could not afford to spend a lot of time at home but whenever possible I would sit with her to listen to her recounts and the very day she would leave us, we were oblivious about the upcoming death; we were simply going about our day and having fun with her.
It was half past ten at night and she did not feel so good; because of complications with her heart, she would usually get impatient during nights, so we failed to give other thoughts to her long cough; after half an hour she was no more. It was like a nightmare and I found it very hard to accept this reality. No matter how much I tried not to believe that my mother-in-law was not with us any longer I could not reverse this truth.
On the one hand I was shocked and on the other surprised. I had never experienced death so closely being physically present. What surprised me more was that death could come that easily. My mother-in-law was speaking and we, family members, had gathered around expecting her to get better soon but God had different plans for her. Secondly, normally I would not go near dead people; if I saw someone's funeral procession a kind of chill feeling would run throughout my body but my mother-in-law's lying body did not give me any such feelings. I went near to her, observed her peaceful face and even touched her. At that moment I realised that if you are emotionally attached to someone you do not hesitate to be with their dead body too.
My mother-in-law's sudden death made the statement, "Live like each day is the final day of your life," more real and meaningful. I started to think, "What would one do if he knew that he was going to die that very day?" Clearly, he would not keep ill feelings towards others. He would drop all negativities, such as anger, greed, jealousy, hatred and so on. His heart would be full of nothing but love. How wonderful it would be if we were free from all negative thoughts and feelings and would internalise peace, beauty and all the love available in this universe?
Is it possible? I would say, yes, of course. We all know that we will definitely die one day, if not today. So, why waste our precious time engaging in the things that we generally don't like or enjoy? 
(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, June 1, 2018 
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Monday 11 June 2018

Unconditional Love

I think “love” is the concept which is discussed more than any other concepts in the world. They say this feeling has different forms. However the love between lovers has grabbed more attention and the intense lovers may say to each other, “I love you unconditionally” hundred times when they are still enjoying the honeymoon period of love life.

In the discourse of spiritualism the concept of “unconditional love” can be found well explained. In my opinion it is very hard for someone to love unconditionally as an ordinary human being. Particularly, in the case of “couples”, love is mostly mutual, not unconditional. If they really loved each other unconditionally, the number of divorces would not increase so rapidly. 

As we all know, in unconditional love nothing can sway how one person feels about the other, but when two people start to realise the differences between them, their relationship will gradually move towards crumbling, and eventually ends in a divorce. Therefore, what they boast of as unconditional love at the beginning of their relationship is most probably their lust or worldly desire. When they begin to live together this desire takes them to different directions and they soon forget about the purity of unconditional love.

Unconditional love does not change through the course of time or anything else. If unconditional love exists and if there is someone who can experience it, she is a mother. Motherly love is the closest form of unconditional love; fatherly love might also be the same but being a mother myself I can only safely vouch for motherly love. 
I deeply feel that a woman cannot be complete unless she becomes a mother or her personality as a woman will not bloom to the fullest without having a true feeling of motherhood. To be a mother means to be more understanding, selfless, loving, patient and open. How can a mother express her unconditional love towards her child?

Well, let me present some examples. A mother can stay hungry but she always makes sure that her children are well-fed. She can forget about the things which could make her happy but she tries to get everything for the sake of her children’s happiness. Doing all this, the mother does not calculate her sacrifices; the only concern she has throughout her lifetime is to be sure that her children are doing well.

When a child achieves something, no matter how small or big it is, the mother will be much happier than the achiever themselves. In other relationships there may exist jealousy, competition, revenge, hatred or calculations but in a mother-child relationship such bitter aspects rarely get any room.

The depth of unconditional love is very profound and to love unconditionally one must really have an open heart which does not count anything but love. Especially, in this materialistic world a majority of people care for their own comfort first; the common practice of “give and take”. How does unconditional love sustain in such a selfish situation where more emphasis is only on taking? So, except for a mother, another person hardly has the capacity to love unconditionally.

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, May 11, 2018 
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Wednesday 6 June 2018

Bliss Or Curse?

I was staring at the cover page of a journal where it was written “Peer Reviewed International Journal”. I talked to myself excitedly, “Hmm…Even in Nepal, they’ve started publishing a journal of international standard. It is a good sign…” 

My excitement vanished as soon as I decided to read the very first article. I was disappointed because the peer reviewers’ names were published with all their professional details as if publicising them was a matter of great pride. What sort of peer-reviewed international journal does that anyway?

As far as I am concerned, usually the reviewers do not know who the author of the article is, so that the article succeeds or fails on its own merit, not the reputation of the writer. In the same way, the reviewers’ identity will also not be disclosed to the author so that the latter will not influence the former in any way. Maintaining this sort of confidentiality leads to unbiased and fair evaluation of the article in question. 

In the case of open-access journals, however, “open peer review” systems are gradually growing in popularity where identities of authors and reviewers are mutually disclosed and sometimes reviews are also published alongside the published articles as Roger Watson indicates in his article “Exploring the Peer Review Process.” This system is not commonly used though, and the journal in my hands was not that sophisticated. So, I do not think they had made informed decisions to use open peer review system; even if they had, the articles contained only the reviewers’ names, not their reviews.

Considering this I could conclude that the journal had only picked up the terms “International Journal” and “Peer Review” but may not have had enough research to explore the seriousness of these terms. As a result, the journal could not do justice to the process of peer review or international standards.

In most of the cases, ignorance may be bliss or even if you do not know something it does not harm you. In contrast, in other situations, the same ignorance turns to be a curse. Journal article means to be written by an expert and for experts, so it is supposed to be as flawless as possible. To overcome all possible mistakes a detailed guideline is given to the authors to follow while writing the articles. Once they submit, first the journal editors review their article, then only they assign the reviewers for peer review who will closely read the article following guidelines given by the journal.

All in all, to get published in an international peer-reviewed journal does not happen that easily; and not to know about the entire process is a curse for those who are involved in publishing scholarly journals and contributing articles to them.

If they continue to publish such journals only for name’s sake it will be meaningless and valueless. Due to being unreliable and untrustworthy, the broader research community will not accept them either as “International” or “Peer-reviewed.” The authors should also not submit their articles to such journals that may devalue their otherwise precious research and submission may end up hindering the advancement of their careers as well.

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, May 4, 2018 
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Saturday 2 June 2018

Never Say No

I read somewhere that there is only one thing that is constant in this world and that is change. However it is very hard for people in general to accept this phenomenon. To make this point clear Spencer Johnson’s book “Who moved my cheese?” is a perfect example.

This book contains a story of four characters – two mice “Sniff” and “Scurry” and two little people “Hem” and “Haw” who represent human metaphor. All of these characters live in a maze where they find varieties of cheese to satisfy their hunger.

The difference between the mice and humans is that the former are constantly noticing the dwindling cheese but the latter are oblivious to their surroundings and just feel comfortable with what they are getting. Soon the supply of cheese finishes and this does not surprise Sniff and Scurry but Hem and Haw cannot figure out what’s happening overnight. They only keep wondering, “Who moved my cheese?”

The mice start their venture to find another supply of cheese in the maze whereas the humans wait there hoping that someday their cheese will reappear. At one level this story is simply read this way; at another level it carries a profound meaning. Here, the maze represents the world in which we live, the cheese represents our comfort and happiness, and the moving cheese represents constant change.

Particularly what happens, people who are comfortable with one way of life resist moving to an unknown situation; like Hem and Haw, they are reluctant to leave the once cheesy part of the maze to search for more cheese. That part can be said to be their comfort zone. Of course it is difficult to venture out of your comfort zone, but once you do, you can find surprises sooner or later, just like Sniff and Scurry, whose incessant search leads them to an unprecedented cheese station.

When I observe the teachers who follow the traditional way of rote teaching for instance, I feel sympathy towards them. Even if they are continuously suggested to implement new and innovative teaching approaches and provided with the needed tools they fear to discard their old way of teaching and try others available to them. Doing this, they are deprived of the chance to be competitive teachers in the market and at the same time they are not giving their students an ample number of learning opportunities.

To cope with change and even to anticipate its approach is one of the survival skills to fit in this ever changing world. No matter how hard one struggles to resist change, it is an inevitability. And its consequence is the person lags behind and faces difficulties throughout.

Therefore the better option would be to accept the reality that change happens or one’s cheese keeps moving, so he must be ready to tackle this situation and equips himself to find new cheese or adapt to the changing situation. It is not a good idea to say “No” to change; instead welcome the change every time it comes to you and enjoy what it brings to your life. Get ready, something is going to change soon and you need to flow with this change.

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, April 27, 2018 
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Wednesday 30 May 2018

Parental Skill

As parents, no matter how old our child gets, it is quite often the case that we cannot look at them any differently than we did when they were little critters running about the house and causing mayhem. Our inherent drive to nurture and provide for our children pushes us to be protective regardless of whether they are three or twenty-three. However, sustained protectiveness might actually be doing exactly the opposite of what we want it to do; the ways in which these parental tendencies manifest may actually be scuppering our children’s ability to fend for themselves as independent members of society. 

While observing the relationship between Australian parents and their children during the course of my stay in the country, it became abundantly clear that most Australian parents had better control over their protective tendencies than their Asian counterparts in terms of letting their children venture out of the comfort zone. They were more open to letting their children try new avenues of expression and exploration – they were a lot more accepting of failure. As parents, we naturally want to shield our children from failure and the disappointment that inevitably follows, but in our rush to shield, we are often guilty of forgetting that failure is the best teacher. 

I recently read about the importance of letting your child learn through trial and error. This idea is still quite alien to many parents in Nepal. There was one gentleman who talked about letting his son go for football tryouts at the local club despite the fact that the boy was not in the best shape physically, nor did he display particularly exceptional skills at the game. He was not selected for the team, and was upset for a few days as a result. However, the gentleman pointed out that once the initial disappointment passed, his son had a productive discussion with him. By himself, his son decided that football was not really for him. 

After reading the post, I thought about all the Nepali parents I knew that would be willing to stand by and let their child take a similar risk: I could not think of many. For a Nepali child in a similar situation, most would probably be discouraged by their parents for fear of failure or something else. Sure, as parents we may often feel that we know the best for our child, but it is important to take a step back sometimes and let them find out for themselves what is and is not right for them. Let them dip their toes in the water and decide for themselves if it is or isn’t too cold rather than telling them it’s too cold from the get go. 

We should stop trying to lay every stone on children’s path. The truth is they may succeed for as long as we maintain that path for them, but we will never truly know if they enjoy that path and plan to continue building that path unless we let them explore by themselves. After all, as much as we may want to, we cannot hold our child’s hand forever, and we must give them the tools to be independent decision makers from a young age. As parents, we must strive to provide guidance to our children as opposed to explicit directions.

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, April 20, 2018 

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Monday 30 April 2018

Shared Space

A pair of sparrows had really been causing troubles for me for about a month. My husband pulled down their nest several times with the hope that they would change their location. It must have been their nesting time and we hoped that they would go somewhere else if we got rid of their nest. But they did not budge and kept swishing around as if we were encroaching their space.
 
Just this morning, I felt pity on these creatures and suggested my husband to tie a sack underneath the nesting place so that the dust does not bother us. Ours is a kind of old design house consisting of wood, cement and corrugated roof. It was too bothersome when I moved to this house recently as we have to share this with pigeons, Indian mynah and sparrows. I was shocked to hear that even a snake was found in the ceiling a few years ago. 

My level of dissatisfaction reached breaking point when I saw the birds untiringly rebuilding their destructed nests. “Can’t they build their nests in a tree? So many trees are around here,” I asked my husband. “No,” was his reply. Some of the bird species are very close to humans and they want to build nests in houses, he explained. I pondered over the statement and concluded if these creatures are so close to humans, why I am angry over the system?

However, it is frustrating when the pigeons slip off the corrugated roof in the middle of the night. Their droppings all over the verandah are a headache for our maid. She has millions of complaints over the poor birds. My anger over the tiny birds turned into curiosity and I wanted to know about the sparrows. When I googled, I found that World Sparrow Day is a day designated to raise awareness of the house sparrows and other common birds to urban environments, and of threats to their populations.

 
From Vedas to Bible, sparrows are mentioned as different symbols. If we look into world culture, sparrow occupies a significant space. Ancient Egyptians considered sparrows sacred. They believed sparrows caught the souls of individuals who passed away. Thus, sailors, before going on their journey, would tattoo the image of a sparrow believing that, if they died in the course of their journey, these birds would carry their souls away to the afterlife.

In Indonesia, sparrows are considered a good luck charm. They are of the belief that if a sparrow enters somebody’s house, either someone will get married in the family, or it will be an occasion to celebrate the birth of a new child.Similarly, in Chinese culture, a sparrow is considered to be auspicious. It is a symbol of spring and happiness. If a sparrow nests in a Chinese family’s house, they will never disturb the bird because it is thought to have brought in good luck to the family.

In this way, a little sparrow is identified as a sacred bird to good luck to even Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love. After encountering all this literature I have stopped grumbling over these birds and I hope I will soon be able to maintain harmony with them. After all, they need human shelter to their survival and as a human I should support them.

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, March 30, 2018 
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Friday 30 March 2018

Motivation Matters

At school, my son had a keen interest in management studies and would often talk to me about the intricacies of managing a business. Some of the things he brought up never stayed with me; accounting fundamentals and the different types of inventories did not really interest me. However, the area of motivation was thought-provoking. 
Theories of motivation formed a common ground between my son and me. It was something under the wide umbrella of psychology that connected the fields of education and management. As it turns out, being able to subtly manipulate the behaviour of individuals that you are responsible for - be it as a teacher or a manager - is quite a handy skill to have. 

Herzberg’s dual-factor theory particularly piqued my curiosity. Herzberg theorises that there exist two groups of factors within a workplace: factors related to job satisfaction and a separate set of factors that, in their absence, can lead to dissatisfaction. To simplify, some factors in the workplace can motivate workers to perform better, whilst others contribute to a worker feeling content with their job but do not encourage workers to increase their level of performance. 

My understanding of Herzberg’s theory may be more simplistic than that of a management veteran, but it seemed to me like the factors that lead to job satisfaction were mostly intrinsic, whilst the other set of factors were extrinsic. This idea of ‘motivational’ factors being closely linked to intrinsic satisfaction would actually go quite a way towards understanding the differences I observed in Australian and Nepali students. 
In Australia, I noticed that students in primary school classrooms seemed to be a lot happier, and in many ways, a lot more engaged than students in the same setting in Nepal. The smaller, more activity-based teaching-learning dynamic probably contributed to this, but applying Herzberg’s ideas to the context of the classroom gave me new insight.

Students in Australia are introduced to autonomy from very early grades, and are progressively given more freedom when it comes to choosing the ways in which they learn the topics taught in the classroom. Effort is always rewarded, and it is this effort that Australian schools prioritise when it comes to recognition -- not raw results alone. Australian schools were, and are, adept at tapping into students’ intrinsic satisfaction to motivate them and thus boost morale. The same cannot be said for the vast majority of schools in Nepal. 

Schools in Nepal, even today, are usually designed as factories. You put the students in, and a mechanical one-fits-all teaching-learning environment exists all the way through from primary to Master’s level, the output is considered to be students’ performance on exams. Autonomy is out of the question; students are spoon fed and encouraged to score more in examination. Just like a factory, the only thing counted to be results. Efforts, creativity, and the ability to take on challenges using new approaches all take a back seat. The focus is mostly on extrinsic factors.

When trying to bridge the gap between our education system and those of more established countries, then, it seems imperative for us to also consider reforming the ways in which we train our educational professionals to motivate students. Before chasing results, we must ensure that students enjoy the process of learning in the first place. Prolific results will inevitably follow if we are able to maintain a high level of motivation in our classrooms.

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, March 23, 2018 
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Saturday 24 March 2018

The Tuition Trend

"Chhori, tuition padhna jane bela bhayo! Chhito thik para,” I heard my neighbour shouting at her 5 year old daughter, Laxmi, who had come back from her school hardly about an hour ago. I was amused to learn about the little girl’s daily tuition.

Out of curiosity, I called Laxmi to my place the next morning. I asked her what she was leaning at school. She immediately replied, “A, B, C, D…” Then I wrote A, B, C, D…down in the exercise book and asked her to read them aloud. Without looking at the letters she mechanically recited them. Then I pointed at them randomly and asked her to tell me what letter I was showing. She stared at me blankly. Laxmi, who goes to a private school every day and in addition takes tuition regularly, cannot even recognise the initial letters of the alphabet. 
It is not only Laxmi who suffers this way; there are a lot of children in our community who share Laxmi’s fate. 
What is more troublesome is that schools themselves recommend parents to send their young children to additional tutoring; the teachers who teach at the schools are also the ones that offer additional tuition. 
I wonder what those teachers teach the whole day at school if they must again invite the young children to take tuition from them. There is a worldwide debate regarding primary school children being given homework. Our schools are busy giving students the extra burden of tuition on the top of lengthy homework.

A lot of research studies suggest that primary school students do not need homework as such because what they learn in school is enough for them at this stage. In addition, they spend long hours at school, so they need to spend some quality time at home after school. They may want to spend their time with parents or they may want to play with their friends or whatever else. The crucial point is that they must have some free time.
In my opinion, this private tuition trend, particularly for young children, is an extra financial burden on parents and an unnecessary barrier between young children and quality time away from rigorous academic study. If teachers cannot teach what they have been expected to teach at school itself, then what’s the use of sticking to that profession? They must realise that they are not made for teaching and look for other options. 

These days, children’s independent learning skills have been emphasised. Schools must be able to prepare independent learners in a way that helps them become life-long learners as well. Independent learning is possible when an individual is able to think, act and pursue their own studies autonomously, without the same levels of support they receive from a teacher at school. In this scenario, what is the feasibility of private tuition?

Osama Sajid is absolutely correct when he says, “After-school tuitions are a handicap…Once a child develops the habit of getting spoon fed by tuition teachers, his intellectual abilities begin to decline. He no longer strives to find solutions to the problems he faces in his studies, but instead looks towards the aid he expects to receive in the evening,” after school.

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, March 16, 2018 
[The pictures on this blog are posted here with permission from their owners or have been gathered from various sources on the Internet. If you are the copyright-holder to any of the photographs herein do not hesitate to contact me. They will be swiftly removed if desired so.]



Tuesday 13 March 2018

Beyond Books

For most Nepali people school is merely a means to bookish knowledge, but the teaching-learning process that takes in a modern day school goes way beyond just books. The role of a school is not simply to develop children’s literacy and numeracy skills; the primary function of schools is to prepare their students for life after the classroom. I can relate this to the “sleepover” programme organised by my son’s school in Australia.

During their time in either the third or the fourth grade, students of the school were invited to a sleepover programme that the school organised within its premises. Many Asian parents were hesitant to send their children there; more so if they had a daughter. I was curious about whether or not my son could spend time away from his parents, even if that only meant a single night, and at the same time I wanted to learn about the purpose behind the event, so I sent him off. 

This “sleepover” turned out to have a lot of hidden meaning. The school wanted to teach students some ‘risk taking’, i.e. to make students more confident, fearless and independent. The school principal clarified, “If we always remain in our comfort zone (family periphery) we may not learn those skills which we need in our later life.” 

Yes, it was a wonderful experience for my son. He spent a good time with his friends from different cultural backgrounds; I am sure they must have exchanged information related to their culture which would help to expand their horizon. In addition, he learned dishwashing, making bed and packing it up. From observing the school’s circumstances I realised that “schooling” has a broad perspective. Children do not go to school only to gain knowledge but they learn various sorts of life skills. It is absolutely true that knowledge is for life – a long term educational goal. 


On the contrary, when I look back to our context, the scenario seems different. In Nepal, students go to school to gain knowledge; and that knowledge is for knowledge’s sake, not for life’s sake. Although the curriculum has emphasised life long goals of education; in practice this has hardly been realised. 

The sleepover is just an example. There are so many other activities which schools can organise to provide students with broader learning experiences. There is a trend of educational tours in Nepali schools as well but they are limited only to “tours.” They are more for fun, and the “educational” portion of the term is often forgotten altogether. The purpose of such tours has not been clearly identified. If students were given some tasks to complete after visiting the places the educational tours would perhaps hold greater value. 

In fact, there is a very limited learning environment within a formal school setting; children can learn a tremendous amount of things from the outer world. Therefore, they must be given opportunities to go outside and explore the world. However, the outdoor activities should not be purposeless – just go out, hang around with friends, have fun, come back and forget everything after some days. Such activities should always be able to challenge students’ thinking process; students should be able to reflect on their world experiences. One way to do this is to assign them a project to complete. Then, they can have fun while achieving something towards fulfilling their life-long educational goals.

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, March 2, 2018 
 [The pictures on this blog are posted here with permission from their owners or have been gathered from various sources on the Internet. If you are the copyright-holder to any of the photographs herein do not hesitate to contact me. They will be swiftly removed if desired so.]



Wednesday 7 March 2018

Nepali Time


Everybody talks about the importance of time and punctuality but in the context of Nepal people are hardly ever punctual. Whether it is a workplace or somewhere else it is a tradition to be late and say, "Nepali time." This may indicate punctuality is largely related to culture; it seems like there is an unspoken agreement among Nepali people to not follow punctuality. Therefore, if you ask someone to see you at 10:00 am for instance, the person will appear at 10:30 am by the earliest. You should not be surprised when a meeting begins at 3:00 pm which was supposed to commence at 2:00 pm.
There are, however, exceptions too; particularly in private organizations being late is not a common practice. A handful of people are still available who hate to be not punctual and such people are treated like aliens.

I am someone who has high regard for punctuality. Even if I know nothing happens in time in Nepal I cannot help but be on time and irritate myself with long waits. Whenever I am in a decision making position the first thing I demand from my team members is punctuality.

There are numerous reasons behind people failing to be punctual. Whatever they say, their lateness shows that they are unreliable and cannot respect others' time and efforts.
Quite recently, I read an article which listed a number of drawbacks to being late. One such drawback was the fact that a lack of punctuality does not make one an important or special person. It is acceptable and unavoidable to be late once or twice but being late consistently makes people unreliable as mentioned above. It does not show you value other people. Being late consistently implies you are rude and lack all consideration and respect for others as well as for the commitment you made.
If you make a commitment to do something at a certain time then you should stick to this, otherwise why be in a false position? We have invited many things from the Westerners in our lifestyles, for example, the way we celebrate birthdays has changed; we have started to observe  Christmas, Easter and Halloween. We do not hesitate to celebrate New Year twice a year. Then, why can't we learn the simple practice of punctuality from them?

We may think that by being late to an appointment we add value to ourselves, which is quite a misconception. In a modern society, people have busy lifestyles. They have set plans to do different things on a daily basis and they do not want to jeopardise their schedules to deal with your tardiness.
Punctuality is one of your significant personality traits which demonstrates you are a well-disciplined, reliable, trustworthy and committed person, who does only not respect their own time but others' as well. Next time, when you need to see someone at a certain time don't be late with the lame excuse of "Nepali time." 
(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, Feb. 23, 2018 

 [The pictures on this blog are posted here with permission from their owners or have been gathered from various sources on the Internet. If you are the copyright-holder to any of the photographs herein do not hesitate to contact me. They will be swiftly removed if desired so.]