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Schools that kill the joy of learning

0JUMA Al Salami, the Assistant Undersecretary for Private Education at the Ministry of Education, has warned that private schools collecting their tuition fee a few months ahead of the new academic year will be dealt with strictly. He has also warned private schools against adopting extortionist methods to collect their fee from parents or students. In particular, he came down heavily on the two schools which clearly adopted unreasonable methods to extract their pound of flesh — one Lebanese school which made its girl student stand in the sun for hours to force her parents to pay up the fee, and another school which put about 25 students under ‘house arrest’, forcing their parents to pay up as a price for their children’s release from the school premises.

All right-thinking people were appalled by such barbaric behaviour of the schools. If a school has to collect its fee, there are innumerable ways of doing so. The most common and acceptable practice is to withhold the examination result of students till all the dues are cleared. Across the world, such a practice is followed, and it is quite effective. What made these schools adopt such unconventional and unacceptable methods? Surely, they were not starving of funds or unable to run their schools because a handful of students hadn’t paid up. Schools are meant to be centres of learning and education, not places where children learn extortion tactics. Imagine the psychological impact of such behaviour on the sensitive minds. Students should look up at their schools and teachers with awe; they should look back at their alma mater with fondness and nostalgia, not with shock and horror. When children grow up, they should look back at their school days as the best part of their lives, as most of us do.