A manual for true citizenry

The greatest dilemma faced by our present and future is a dearth of responsible citizens and healthy human beings. Without considering to reform ourselves, we all feel the dire need to build a strong, vibrant and caring society. We have learnt through the ages that the most sustainable change is the one which starts from home and school. The multiple challenges confronting the society, much due to our misinterpreted and misleading schooling system, can relatively easily be addressed by reforming our education system. Lawlessness, desperation, oppression, and misery have corrupted our society leaving little room for the aware to procrastinate. Rather than indulging in the cause-and-effect analysis of our suffering, I am listing below the areas where our school systems, pubic as well as private, must attend to sooner than later.

Learning vs memorizing

 Our school-goers are stuck in intensely exam-oriented education from the day one while brain development is left for sports time for which they hardly get significant time and guidance. Catastrophically, their energies are channelized to compete with each other for better grades. Teachers work day in and day out to help them cram the syllabi to produce accurate answers.

"The experience of play changes the connections of the neurons at the front end of your brain," says Sergio Pellis, a researcher at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. "And without play experience, those neurons aren't changed," he adds. (nprEd)

Playground vs cram-rooms: Physical education is mandatory in schools today but in practice, it is limited to only a tiny bit of time without any clear guidelines. It’s all about selecting talented players and making either a cricket or a football team. Often physical training instructors (PTIs) don’t keep the record of kids’ weights and height. One-class per week allocated to physical education in the timetable is often spent in the canteen, as the PTI is busy with some irrelevant activities. The PTI himself is rarely a trained for the role as most often he is a retired JCO with good physique or a strong reference.

Since the vitality of physical training has not been acknowledged by the system, its time is allotted for classes of science and mathematics. This leads to lethargy and obesity, consequently worsening the conditions. The youth in higher classes turn to smoking and video games. Their health deteriorates as with minor physical movement they start complaining of breathlessness while diabetes, blood pressure, and joint pain are becoming more commonplace. Fitness test of a kind should be established not for competing peers but to keep the record of an individual’s propensity. Professionally designed regular daily fitness classes are required from KG onwards.  

 

Civic education vs social apathy: If not educational institutions, then who must unfold the term ‘civic sense’ and shed light on its merits to the next generation? Why should a school be responsible for imparting a sense of civic responsibilities? After all, the system of education is not meant for the betterment of society. Grades quench our thirst and that is why schools also strive hard, to be considered successful. The student who pays an exorbitant fee must obtain the highest grades leading to admission in a reputed university.

In normal circumstances, educational institutions ought to lay emphasis on developing a civic sense in children at a very young age so their social responses could be guided. Imparting a sense of responsibility amongst individuals for collective wellbeing was never more direly needed as today. To mitigate threats like child sexual abuses, petty crime, terrorism and reducing pollution requires communal civic action.

Volunteerism vs individualism: Volunteerism has yet to flourish in our land. Despite repeated natural calamities, lack of emergency services and back-to-back terror attacks, neither our media nor political leadership realized the need for voluntarism. The education system is too busy to inculcate virtues voluntary action amongst the youth. A teacher who usually is an embodiment of voluntary spirit is not judged for it. His performance criterion revolves around his class discipline and academic grading of the students, called results. The schools don’t expect him to produce extraordinary members of society like Abdul Sattar Edhi or Aitzaz Hassan.

Civil defense vs vulnerability

Community, society or nation, whatever you may call, is in dire need of having its youth ready to fight terrorism on diverse levels. Fighting isn’t using weaponry only; the state of being vigilant by keeping eyes open is of utmost significance too. Civil defense holds the key to survival not in peacetime but also in war and natural disaster. The time requires citizens even to observe their surrounding for a suspicious bag, parked vehicle or an anonymous fellow hanging out meaninglessly. The schools must have taken up their role to sensitize children about their surroundings and train them to deal with emergency through sharp decision-making.  It would not only provide a sense of security in the community but also bring a revolutionary change enhancing the sense of responsibly, relationship; interdependence and citizenship would permeate the society. Youth’s readiness strengthens the nations for they are the ones to serve in future.

Likewise, schools rarely realize their responsibility to train the students for medical emergencies. The youth must be exposed to dealing with a situation in the wake of an injury on the playground or road accident in the street. Do our schools even maintain first aid kits? I’d doubt.

Road safety vs road rage

Traffic regulations, signs, and norms are usually not the domain of schools either. Regardless that the school-goers are the most vulnerable road-users in the society, even the parents don’t feel the need to sensitize themselves and their offspring regarding the safest way to reach from one point to the other. Besides infusing empathy, the schools must also include traffic rules and regulation from first to eighth grade with practical exercises. Within years, the road safety will start to improve automatically. On any given day, it is rare to see people respecting the priority right of way for an ambulance or a fire truck.

The final words

For lack of these personality traits, we are not producing team players, responsible members of the community or pro-active citizens; hence, robots with tremendous information but bottlenecked awareness and goals step out of schools.