While discussing the government’s good decision about change in school timing, Runak Sharma, a postgraduate student in Physics from Rajasthan said that the day in Rajasthan starts at 03:30 AM.
Similar situation is in other states including the neighboring states like Himachal, Haryana and Punjab. Students enter their schools before 7AM and many are dropped by their parents.
We need to change the old mindset of school timings and refrain from criticising the government for everything. From Mid-March till Mid-November, Kashmir Valley has the pleasant weather and school timing can be even from 8AM.
This will help us not only to avoid peak hours of traffic jamming (students remain stranded for hours) but also will open the way for double shift.
The same infrastructure could be used twice a day. Administration should come up with a suitable mechanism of double shift of schooling, wherever possible. Faculty deficiency can be mitigated through contractual appointments (guest teachers) for the session till recruitment board makes appointments.
Children should be encouraged by parents to wake up early, at least 2-3 hours earlier than their school bus timings. There are multiple benefits in getting up early and in early schooling. Few of them are
(i) They can do exercise which makes them fresh for the day ahead.
There is a misconception that exercise is meant for elderly people. Even children need to do physical exercises and also need to bend and stretch their body to keep it flexible.
(ii) They have time to finish their morning duties leisurely. Children should be trained to complete their routine morning duties before they leave for school.
(iii) They can help themselves by arranging their things to get ready for school. Children get time to arrange their school bag without forgetting anything, dress up and organise their things.
(iv) They can have a good and wholesome breakfast. Many children have the habit of skipping the breakfast and rush to school, for want of time. The breakfast should be wholesome with cereal, pulses combined with nuts or fruits.
(v) Early morning schooling makes them stress free. They have ample time to finish all their work on time. This keeps them cool without tension and are free to think and do their work with perfection.
Sleeping early and waking up early improves the concentration and memory power too. This means people will tend to perform better at work and the children in their studies.
It gives special benefits to students in the educational journey. It also helps in inculcating moral values in students and is important for a child’s development.
School life is not all about academics, tutorials and games. In fact it is also about learning to interact with other people, being aware of the social issues/inequities and learning to amend the deformities present in our society.
Keeping in view the benefits it is suggested not to derail the good initiatives of the government. This sector is not in a good shape and needs many reforms.
As a teacher I felt it a moral obligation to suggest the government to make double shift of schooling at least from Class 6th onwards from mid-March to mid-November every year.
Children need continuous schooling, counseling and disciplining and the decision of early schooling is appreciable. Though roadblocks may be getting in our way, it’s important to remember that optimists are creative thinkers who can recover from setbacks and mishaps.
Dr. M. A. Shah teaches nanotechnology at NIT Srinagar.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.