Education is the foundation upon which we build our future – Christine Gregoire
Salman sat quietly at the back of the noisy classroom trying not to be noticed. The bare walls had some spots, and a few notices from 2012 that nobody bothered to take down. The clock was stuck at 11.47 and refused to move. If he kept his head down and didn’t breathe, then nobody could see him. As the teacher rambled on in his eternal monotone Salman cast furtive glances at Ahmed, the class bully: He was busy drawing a cartoon of the teacher in his notebook. As he held his breath hoping to remain invisible, Salman had a plan of action for lunch break: Run like hell and hide underneath the stairs where he could quietly eat his sandwich and drink his juice.
Ahmed cunningly watched Salman from the corner of his eye as he scribbled nothings on his notebook. He knew he was petrified and that made him excited. He drew a cartoon of hanging Salman upside down from the roof. This time he would film the whole thing to show it to his friends. Salman deserved it anyway, because he was too smart for his own good and didn’t know how to show respect. As the clock neared 12 his adrenaline started pumping. He knew where he would find him; under the stairs, and nobody would even know or care.
Mr Faisal scribbled his math equations fervently on the chalkboard. Of Egyptian origin, Faisal had been in Bahrain for two years and was already homesick. What kept him was the pay and stability. As he went over the numbers and equations, his mind kept drifting. “I can’t wait to go back home and have a sheesha and watch the Barcelona match tonight” he thought. He also couldn’t wait for the 10 years to pass till he could get retirement and watch the games back home with his family in Cairo. Faisal turned around and looked at the children. They looked bored as usual. “Ok everyone, it’s time for lunch break” he announced at 12.00. As the children silently filed out of the class, he was already scrolling through his phone to see the latest on Facebook.
It was so much fun for Ahmed to beat the pulp out of Salman under the stairs, where nobody could see, and nobody would care anyway. He took Salman’s glasses off and stepped on them, then pulled his hair hard. As Salman snivelled and begged for him to stop, he kept recording with his phone. Ahmed took Salman’s chicken sandwich and crushed it on his face followed by a hard slap. Salman crawled into a ball and kept repeating “no, stop, no, stop”. The game got boring, so Ahmed poured what was left of the mango juice on the pathetic blubbing creature on the floor and posted his video. The day continued.
These sorts of incidents happen all the time in our schools, and occasionally a video reaches the community. A few weeks ago, we saw a bunch of kids slap and punch another student silly then post it on social media. There was an uproar and the authorities took action. Great. But what about the underlying source? What about all the other unreported cases that go ignored? What about teacher-student bullying (whether physical or verbal)? What about standards in our schools?
In Helsinki, students don’t even have schedules, standardised grading, or fixed textbooks. They study only what interests them. Meanwhile, we still have rigorous routines that destroy the love of learning, and in many cases ignore the psychological welfare of the student. Teachers should be the highest paid civil servants, yet we import low-paid educators instead of promoting and training locals (who are here to stay). Our schools are filled to capacity and our educational system is on the brink of collapse (if it hasn’t already collapsed). The bullying videos we see are only a symptom of a disease, and I hope we cure it because these young minds are the future of our country, and if we don’t take strict action to completely change the culture we may as well be teaching them nothing.