Manama: A teacher in Saudi Arabia is keeping young pupils motivated by offering them the chance to ride a bicycle in school.
Looking for an incentive for his six-year-old pupils, Sultan Al Utaibi brought a bicycle into the school and told his pupils that whoever performed best would be allowed to ride the bike throughout the school during break times.
The pupils soon started to compete for the honour of riding the bike.
“The idea has succeeded in attracting the interest of the students and in boosting competition and readiness to learn” Badr Eid Al Dhiabi, the school principal, said, quoted by local daily Sabq on Tuesday. “It was an incredible incentive that has really worked and we can now see more efforts being exerted by the students.”
Al Dhiabi said that the school would soon use the incentive for all first-grade pupils.
“In fact, we have noted that even students from the second and third grades have become interested in the idea and in the public recognition of outstanding achievers,” he said.
News site users overwhelmingly welcomed the idea, saying that it would truly motivate the youngsters to work harder.
“It seems that we have a come a long way since the day when teachers punished us and hit us to supposedly motivate us to study,” a blogger, writing under the moniker of “Soldier”, wrote. “I have developed a complex from the punishments I received. The idea of encouraging students through the bike ride and the school recognition is really wonderful.”
