Students stand for long hours during the weekly school assembly and are expected to remain silent.
SCHOOL life is turning out to be a torture.Below is the typical routine of an average student in a single session school. We have to be in school by 7.15am, which means we have to be out of the house by 6.40am the latest.
On Mondays, we have assembly. We stand for between 40 minutes and two hours while the teachers sit. Some even talk to each other during the assembly. But we students are supposed to remain standing in silence, and listen to the same lecture week after week.
Then classes start, so we cannot eat breakfast. But one can see a group of teachers sitting in the canteen and eating.At 10.30am, we get a 20-minute break within which everything must be done, that is, going to the toilet, eating, buying books from the cooperative and changing if we just had physical education.
Sometimes, the teachers let us out 10 minutes late. So, we only have 10 minutes left. After recess, it is back to class until 3.10pm from Monday to Thursday.We don't get a lunch break. Why aren't we given a break?
By the time we get home after school, it is usually 4pm. So, lunch is at 4pm. Sometimes by 4.30pm, we are required to go back to school for sports practice. Sports practice is usually running around the field. This ends at 6pm. Then we get home, gulp down something fast and start on our homework, which can last from two to four hours.
The earliest we get to bed is midnight. This is without doing any housework, such as washing clothes, shoes, making the bed, ironing, etc.Isn't this against the fundamental rights of a child? Does the Education Ministry think that children can excel under such conditions?
Why should a 16-year-old spend such long hours studying? If that is not enough, on Saturdays, we are called back for all sorts of programmes, from extra classes to Kem Pembinaan Sahsiah. Even on Sundays, we are expected to go to school.
When my parents approached the school to go slow on the programmes, the principal said the school was judged by the number of programmes it undertook. There are so many things that can be done to make schools more comfortable.
For example, better toilets to start with. When one complains to the school authorities, they say students do not take care of the toilets. Any public amenity with heavy-duty usage needs constant maintenance. This is the area that the ministry must give priority to when carrying out school programmes.Why can't assemblies be held in the hall where there are chairs for students to sit, and teachers do their duty by keeping an eye on the students?
I appeal to the education minister to talk to students. I appeal to him to look into the plight of the thousands of schoolchildren who suffer day in and day out. And please reduce the school hours.
My life as a child is being robbed by the very people who I expect to protect me
Read more: Schooling problems: We are worn out http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/22schooling/Article/#ixzz1BgBe1WHa
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