Students demand compensation for homework; A different take on Land Acquisition Bill

The school is in turmoil, the management is at wits end to even begin to understand how to deal with the situation. The problem has never been faced by any school, ever.

It began when the children wanted some basic, democratic, inclusive rules to be applied to the concept of the homework.

Their demands were simple and straight forward.

  •  Homework can be given but before doing so, the concerned teacher must prove that the homework is being given on the issue of high academic importance. The teacher would need to make a presentation to the class who would take a final call on this issue.
  • Homework should be suitably compensated by providing play time during school hours. This would be equal to four times the home work time in Metros and two times in other towns & villages.
  • The homework should be given with the consent of students. Not less than 80% of the students need to be agreeable to the homework. This agreement will be teacher specific.
  • There needs to be a Social Impact Audit done for homework of each subject. This should be made mandatory in case of Maths, Science and English. The Social Audit would be done by a committee appointed by students and would include their friends from the locality & on the facebook. The results of this impact audit would be binding on the teacher.
  • If a student finds it difficult to complete the homework within the allotted time, the homework for entire class would stand cancelled for the day. If it happens twice in a month, the teacher who gave the homework would forfeit his / her right to give homework for the remaining session.
Expectedly, the school did not accept most of the demands and students began a protest.

The issue became complicated when the several businessmen, especially those selling prepaid airtime, data packs, game CDs etc. joined the protest stating that excessive homework given to students was affecting their livelihood.

Invoking the freedom to live and do business of their choice, the shopkeepers demanded a total ban on homework and wanted state to make laws fixing and revising upwards, the minimum pocket money for each student. The MSPM (Minimum Student Pocket Money) should only be based on the WPI index and not linked to the income of the parents, they demanded. The students, obviously, were elated with both the demands.

All and sundry have joined the agitation now. The politicians who claim to fame is instant gratification if it gets them votes, the non governmental organizations who spell the word ‘responsibility’ as ‘rights’ and ‘rules’ as ‘atrocity’ have pitched in with their respective agendas.

As students sit on the protest, parents are getting worried for their future, school is readying itself for the situation where it has to choose between what is required & right and what is expedient & doable, educationists are having doubts about the need of homework, or even the need for education.

And in the middle of this someone is asking, “If the students don’t study, how would they even read the labels on the game CDs?”

Popular posts from this blog

Bechara's of the world triumph - always; Why bypolls went the way they did.

Image
Most of us would have heard or read this story before but its relevance to the current situation makes a retelling necessary. A sword smith came to the King’s durbar (any King, let’s be secular) and declared that he had the world’s best sword. It was so good & sharp that it could pierce any shield, repeat any shield in the world.  The claim was tested on the few shields available and when found to be true, the King became happy, and as usually happens in such stories, gave a lot of gold and other jewels to the smith and sent him off. A year or two later, the smith came to the King’s court again, this time brandishing a shield which, he claimed, no sword in the world could pierce. The people were simple in those days and he was believed.  The King was about to be relieved of some more gold and gems but then, one smart Ram Singh remembered the sword that the smith had sold earlier. He got up and reminded the king of the impossibility of both claims being true and a...
Read more

Congress marketing pitch; offerings and services – revealed in introduction letter to new allies

Image
Published on Faking News in Sept 13 Our sources got this document from Congress headquarters. Though it could not be confirmed, it looks like it is part of their introduction letter to new, potential allies.  We will make you an offer you can’t refuse. We would like to introduce ourselves as a 130 year old conglomerate offering variety of solutions for organizations looking for special services. Our happy and contented customers vouch for our unmatched offerings and services. Our bouquet of offerings: Immunity & Protection : The law is an ass, someone said. And if you are on wrong side of it, it can become an irritating ass. As one of our core competencies, we provide special offerings for total immunity & protection from investigation & persecution. We also have the capability to redefine laws in case our customers have a need. We use only ISO certified clean chits. Currently we have a situation of high internal resource utilization and with the limit...
Read more

"I am quitting" said God

“I am quitting, with immediate effect.” said God. I was hit by the suddenness of it. God appearing to you can be quite a shock. “Quitting .. What?” I blurted out. “Quitting from the position of God” He was looking sad, weighed down by something. A fraction of a moment later, the realization of what He had said and the implication that the world was coming to an end dawned on me. I felt as if I have been thrown over a steep cliff into a bottomless abyss.  I stammered, “What? You can’t do that!” “Why on earth not? I am the master of my freewill. Are you telling me I am not?” God retorted. “I mean..  I mean, the world would come to an end.. Where would we go? What would we do? Oh, no. Would we survive? I don’t want to die.” I pleaded. “Don’t be melodramatic. Nothing is going to happen to your world.” God dismissed my pleadings. “Nothing will happen? How would world survive without you?” I persisted, still pleading. “Don’t act dumb. I gave you...
Read more