Dear Editor,
Conversations overheard:
“I have two children – one at Public, another at Private School. I have to send the one to Public in September; the other has to stay home because that Private School is going to use distance learning. I don’t know yet who is providing the connecting facility.” “My child’s private school is going to teach face to face. But nobody has asked what I prefer when I spoke to the teacher; nobody had spoken to her either.” “I am a single working parent. So I always prefer to take my child to school. The school is now saying that my child must learn from home. Not only I can’t afford to stay home; but my child would have nobody to play with. I really don’t understand why nobody is talking to me. When I approach any of the teachers, the answer I get is that nobody has discussed the matter with them either, and they have children too.”
“But now we busy talking, don’t we have to consider how the children themselves feel. It’s just that I wouldn’t know how to explain to them which is right from wrong.” “We are all in the same boat. Whether Public or Private, we parents are left out of the conversation, so that we can’t provide answers our children are asking for, as if they are not the most important persons of these different arrangements.” “But then again Public or Private don’t our children have to sit for the same exams? So why don’t we try to organise our Parent/Teachers Associations to discuss and come up with a position that could get the hearing of officials? We so need a conversation amongst equals.”
“I think I would support such an idea, because in the final analysis this is not only a matter of teaching and learning, it also involves emotions, relationships, growing up to understand teamanship – studying and playing together; and at the same time counselling about individual strengths and weaknesses; and possibly at the senior level, opportunities for growth.” “Should we therefore agree to seek to reopen the conversation – as equal partners in education in this pandemic environment, and possibly of the future?” At which point a passer-by intruded: “Check if the Constitution allows mandatory action on citizens and the imposition of discipline on the latter’s objections.”
Sincerely,
An Overhearer
