Friday, September 12, 2008

School

Since the time I shifted to new place, I am observing and traveling with a new crowd around me.
I come across them as soon as I step out of my house.
While locking my door in the morning I see a bus coming towards our apartment to pick up a school going kid staying upstairs.

So, here is a boy, 3 or 4 years old (I guess he is a boy. A confusing personality. Very short hair but with the angelic face of girl. I even do not know the name to make out anything. But my inner senses convinced me to call him a boy).
So there he comes downstairs carrying a branded bag on his back and another bag in hand having his tiffin box and the water bottle. His father accompanying him to the bus and has to wave his hands till the bus takes a turn. I notice all other students in the bus, very well dressed and carrying stuffs equally good as described for the boy staying upstairs.
While moving towards my bus stop I come across some 3 or 4 such school buses having almost the same picture. It feels so good to see the better picture of the upcoming generation. A good education to all of them.
But the picture turns dark as soon as I reach my regular bus stop. Here I meet with another bunch of students. On my way to work there are 2-3 schools. I meet many of these school students at the stop. The situation here is in stark contradiction to one described earlier.
The students standing here hardly seem taking care of themselves. Irrespective being boy or girl, these students are shabby. After seeing for so many days, I roughly have an idea about their school uniforms. Rarely do I find any student in complete uniform. Many of them do not even have footwear. Among rest half go to school wearing broken slippers. The worst comes when I see their school bags. Not exactly but it’s still the beginning of the academic year and I am yet to find a single student whose school bag is in good condition and without any stitching. Many of the students carry with them what I would dare to call a school bag. Once I came across a boy whose school bag was torn more than half. I was wondering how all things were still inside that so-called bag while I could see all the corners and material inside it.

I feel these are the neglected students. No body care about them. It seems their parents are happy fulfilling the sole responsibility of admitting these kids in school.
May be they cannot afford to provide their kids with good facilities, but can’t they even care to stitch their bags? Can’t they ask their kids to at least wash their face before moving out of home.

All these results in the kind of treatment they receive in buses. The drivers and conductors treat them like the herd of animals and they have nothing to reply. This may be one situation; I wonder how they are treated in their respective schools, which do not even care of their uniforms and the condition of their school bags.I am worried what kind of future do these students have. Do they have any?