There is a simple solution to the problem, which we report today, of the failure of state schools to match their private counterparts in the provision of extra-curricular activities: it is that such activities should cease to be regarded as extra-curricular.
Too many students, parents and – disgracefully – teachers view school as a place where young people go to be force-fed the minimum amount of information necessary to pass their examinations. But a good school is so much more than that. A good school turns out fully rounded individuals equipped with the knowledge and the skills to face the challenges of the modern world, and it doesn’t do that by teaching only reading, writing and arithmetic.
State schools point out that sports and other personal development activities have to be funded from their existing budgets, and they have a point: when your school “library” has no books, it is hard to make a case for spending money on a class trip to the theatre. Often, however, the resources are there – just hidden and untapped. Perhaps the maths teacher has a passion for chess: let him share it with students in an after-class group. Perhaps the mother who ekes out the family budget by making some of her children’s clothes could share her seamstress talents with their classmates. Perhaps the bank clerk with two children at school was a useful football midfielder in his youth: let him share his skills on a school playing field. Indeed, given the alarming level of childhood obesity in the UAE, with children as young as 10 found to have Type 2 diabetes, sport and physical exercise can no longer be an optional extra.
The schools argue that if students stay behind for after-class activities there are no buses to take them home. But surely it cannot be beyond the wit of parents and teachers to share and pool what private transport they have at their disposal.
Money will always be an issue, of course, and one that will presumably be addressed next month when the Education Ministry announces its long-term plans for after-school activities in state schools. But simply throwing cash at the problem won’t work without an acceptance by students, parents and teachers that education doesn’t stop when the school bell rings.
Page last updated 01 January 2020