Something to talk about

It seems highly unlikely that 10 year old Rabia youngest of three siblings has any psychological problem. This was her first episode of seizure yet no one was able to give detailed account what actually happened during the seizure or so called fit. At a time when poor girl was surrounded by her classmates all grade 4 ones there were different versions of the event. This has happened second time so the teacher has somehow convinced parents to seek professional help from a psychiatrist. The parents have tried their best to found a psychiatrist whose practice is fairly distant form their residence just in case to exclude possibility of being identified by anyone.

Apparently there seemed nothing wrong with the young girl. Yet, a careful probing revealed that the night before incident they had an early dinner because parents were invited for a party. Rabia did not eat anything because it was too early for her but by the time parents returned she was fast asleep. Next morning she did not have any breakfast or else school van would have been missed. To make matter worse she was unable to do sums in time so teacher asked her to stay during recess. It was thus not surprising that by noon she fainted.

Breakfast is such an important meal to begin the day rightfully called break – fast but for many school going children it is something not really taken care of. Most of the schools worldwide start around or after 8.30 in the morning but in Pakistan there are schools that start even before 8. Then there are school vans to transport kids early morning. We all have witnessed dozing kids in the passing by vans. With this trend how can we expect our kids to perform well at school empty stomach for hours? The brain needs fuel to start the day or else it will keep on dozing even in the presence of best teachers and techniques. Similarly what I always failed to understand is that why children can not be allowed to keep water bottles with them in a corner of the class and take a sip whenever they feel thirsty. Some teachers defend by saying that they might drop water on their copies or table ruining the work but then how will they learn to act responsible unless we do not provide them some opportunities to learn? The extreme hot weathers we have in Pakistan require adequate water intake and school is a place where kids are spending more than six hours. They need to drink water more often. If allowed to keep bottles by their side they can have a sip off and on without actually disturbing class although initially there may be chaos. What horrifies me are the schools which do not provide water at all in schools and these include schools catering from lower social class to higher ones for different reasons. While schools for poor ones could not afford to do so because of so called budget and resources I am surprised to see that most of the schools who charge more than a thousand per month do not provide water only on the pretext that students should buy mineral water bottles from canteens. The institutions like these definitely do not miss any chance to squeeze money out of parents but then are these really worthy of calling institutions? Something to think about