On my way to college in an auto-rickshaw, the auto-rickshaw driver asked me if my phone had internet and if i could check his childs syllabus for him. He then gave me a paper with name of a very posh south Delhi school and his user-id and password which he said does not open from cyber-cafes he had been to. When i tried to open it, it kept giving me wrong user id or password message. He then told me that his child got admission in that school because he belongs to Below Poverty Line section, but it is difficult for him to access internet. In spite of having spoken to them, the school insists that he, along with other parents, check daily homework given etc on their website. I tried to speak with him and explained that the school is not being charitable but merely sticking to a legal expectation (which he did not know). And then i wondered, how even as colleges we are moving to something similar. Where we expect everyone to have certain facilities, take it for granted that each person to have similar material experiences. I wonder then what is the purpose of education for most of the people today? Is it only something to add to our net asset value as employees? Should the students not be made aware of life beyond computer screens and a simpler/gadget-less/poor/mere subsistence life that most people in the world live by. I am not even going into the elite debate here, which is extremely important, but the ways in which schools like these dishearten and discourage parents like him who seemed so keen and had been doing rounds of different cyber cafes just so that he could help his 4 -year-old finish his homework.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 06:04:02 +0000
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