The education system these days is ruining the lives of children in one way or the other. Children are always stressed about getting the best scores in school that they forget to fully live their childhood.
One of my very close friends, who used to live in the UAE two years ago, moved back to her hometown with her family after her father decided they couldn’t live here forever.
She was a very bright student and she loved the UAE very much. She had lived here all her life. The sudden lifestyle changes saddened her but she never expressed it to anyone.
When she took admission in a new school, everything about her life changed. The subjects and teaching methods were different. She struggled with the language and teachers weren’t helpful either. She used to get mocked by them for not knowing parts of the syllabus that she had missed. She used to get bad marks for the mathematics she was never taught. She tried really hard to get good marks but it seemed impossible. She had to take extra tuition morning and evening because her parents asked when the other students can cope, why couldn’t she?
A few months later during her class; she suddenly felt terribly ill. She started vomiting severely and fainted. After waiting for two hours, an ambulance arrived and she was taken to the hospital. She passed away in the hospital. Her last words were “I tried” and “why couldn’t you come early dad?”
She was buried in her hometown. The cause of her death was unknown. When the father wanted to file a case against the school, he was told by the lawyer that the court might exhume his daughter’s body for the forensic report. He decided against it.
The family came back to UAE and the father now works in Dubai.
We should never force our children into studying all the time. They deserve relaxation and peace, too. We shouldn’t force our dreams on our children either. One cannot be good at something if one has no interest in it.
- The reader is a student based in Dubai.
