School
What is a school? Is it a building? Is it a place where future generations are educated? To me, a school is the centre for education. It provides education, emotional, as well as spiritual enrichment. I am sure that everyone would prefer to have their own ideal school. It is a place where one feels most comfortable to learn in. In my opinion, an ideal school would consist of a building with an ultra-modern infrastructure and top- notch facilities. It would look more like resort rather than a typical school. All the classrooms would have colourful walls with wonderful paintings and thought-provoking pictures hanging on them. To ensure students‘optimum productivity, the school would also have a comfortable environment to study in. All the classrooms would be well-lit and fully air-conditioned. It has been observed that the traditional arrangement of tables and chairs in the classrooms does not allow teachers to pay equal attention to students. Thus, it would be perfect to arrange the tables and chairs in a semi- circle facing the teacher. It would also be great if the number of students in a class is limited to 20 per class rather than the present 40 or 50 per class. Apart from that, we also need a well-equipped library with the state-of-art facilities for students to conduct their research and studies. The library of an ideal school should be filled with books and materials on a wide range of topics. Computer cataloguing should also be introduced to make referencing easier. Furthermore, the school should also provide free Internet services to students. In addition, an ideal school should have a sophisticated gymnasium and sports centre. Students can work out in the gymnasium and also play a game or two of bton in the indoor bton court. Athletes and swimmers can also train at the school mini stadium and swimming pool. Students nowadays are burdened with homework and endless examination. An idyllic school should provide students with space for creativity, innovation and spiritual growth. More constructive and productive homework should be given instead of burdening homework. Students should be encouraged to understand their homework and find joy and fun in doing them. Students should not be doing homework for the sake of doing them. Apart from that, homework should also be fun and provides an exciting path to self-discovery instead of being dull and monotonous. Teachers could perhaps have Biology classes outdoors so that students can really appreciate the beauty of nature or organise field trips to exhibition and conventions to make learning interesting. Moreover, to maximize the students‘learning capacities, lessons should start at 10.00am.Timetable should not be packed and hectic. There should be breaks in between lessons so that students can digest knowledge from the previous lesson instead of rushing into the next lesson straight after the previous one. Recess should also be lengthened so that students can enjoy their food in the cafeteria or read in the urbane library or even exercise in the school sports centre. In this era of globalisation, ICT is of utmost importance. The modern world is fast-moving forward with paperless banking, paperless istration and many up-to-date technologies. So, why can‘t schools have paperless teaching and learning? In the ideal school, students should each be given a notebook. Heavy school bags and tones of books should be a thing of the past. In this era of K-Economy, students
can be technology- savvy by having their lessons online. Besides, it would also be excellent if students can have teleconferencing and online forum with scholars from all over the world. On top of that, students can hand up their homework in the form of emails. Teachers can also post the students‘ results and comments on the school website so that parents can care for their child‘s academic achievements irrespective of time and place. In addition, an ideal school should not require its students to wear school uniforms. Uniforms tend to make a school dull. It presents students as faceless beings in uni-colour. One‘s clothing represents one‘s personalities and makes one unique. Students should be allowed to present themselves properly by wearing proper attire to school. Furthermore, an ideal school should also be co-educational. This would enable better communication between genders and prevents gender discrimination. Such a school would provide chances for of the opposite sex to work together and understand each other better thus encouraging a sense of mutual respect among its students. The idea of my ideal school might seem far-fetched at the moment. However, it is my belief that if each and every one of us were to reach in to find the best within ourselves and reach out to give the best education to our future generations, the idea of creating an ideal school would not merely remain a dream after all.