Is the goal financial or educational? [Archives:2008/1133/Community]
By: Shafeek Al-Homaid
The education system is the basic pillar and backbone for any successful and prosperous nation. Producing fruitful generations able to keep pace with reality and technology involves real education. If we all want to drive the wheels of the future forward, this is done only through the education system and a deep understanding of its handling.
However, the Yemeni education system has taken a considerable turn, with the main goal being financial rather than educational, as the top guardians of handling the learning process in schools are like money vampires seeking any sources of promotion.
In fact, what causes me to write this should take students by surprise and frighten them regarding the future of the learning process.
Several months ago, I requested a teaching position at several government schools whose only common feature was negative and illiterate headmasters.
It's regretful that schools in our society are considered educated and academic just based on their outer building while turning a blind eye toward management staff and quality on the inside.
With my due respect to those female headmasters who run schools, hundreds of teachers and thousands of pupils have no will or passion to yield ideal and well-educated outputs able to keep pace with reality and technology. Holding such posts doesn't depend on their qualifications or experience to provide the methodology of the learning process.
So, what does true leadership involve? For them, leadership means making a profit, regardless of how much information students gain.
What I've witnessed in some schools is unforgettable, as they've become like real estate, with most classes being converted into cafeterias for rent under the pretext of providing students their main supplies.
The job of a school principal is really like a bus driver collecting as many commuters as possible and scraping together money and benefits in return.
Whenever I attend class, I notice that students are upset that they are daily asked to pay for trips, activities, printing and other school requirements. All of these collections go directly into the headmasters' purses.
If one puts forward amendments to serve the better, objections will be raised, as happened when I once told my headmaster that it's worth identifying students' shortcomings and determining their inclinations and desires in order to push them and enhance the learning process. However, once applied, all of the ideas and proposals were quite disapproved and underrated in those places where most needed.
Some moments frustrate me and taboo questions come to mind, such as have these headmasters ever asked themselves why they're working? For the money, of course, but do they really have the satisfaction of an effort well done?
Most in these positions are absolutely unwilling to put their noses to the grindstone to properly serve their country and its future generations.
Why do these few 'cream of the crop' – who are full-minded and pedagogical – move far from the positions they were deemed to deserve? The slogans that say, “The right person in the right position,” sound like mere posters erected in our society.
Unfortunately, the bill for education generally has increased and gotten more expensive for both the private and the governmental sector.
I really keep wondering how the Ministry of Education continually spends millions of dollars on educational requirements to produce proficient and skillful outputs while all of these expenditures come to nothing.
As a result of deteriorating and decaying education in Yemeni schools and universities, many students drop out to do any type of work, believing that the future of education yields only pessimism and doesn't ensure a good future.
Many parents choose to send their children to school simply for the discipline and quality, not based on their business atmosphere or cost.
I don't believe any change will occur unless these headmasters in particular and everyone in general feels the huge responsibility and the honesty to realize it. We should do the jobs given to us, regardless of how much we're paid or what type of work it is.
Everyone realizes that education is in trouble in most of our society because schools are unable to produce graduates able to compete equally everywhere.
It's become nonsense for our education system to yield dependable outputs such as governors, judges, diplomats, etc., until we're all so busy doing it that we won't have time to wonder why.
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