Wednesday 28 April 2010

Schools without manners- Can they teach our kids manners? and more

I dont want to sound so presumptions, I think that some schools in the UAE are very rude. The main thing about the schools is to transfer manners to our children. Of course this will only happen if the school has that culture instilled in it. Also, on another level, schools have the responsibility in informing the students about everything, keeping them abreast on what is available out there. So these two levels were violated today.

We were distributing some information to some schools in Dubai, one of these schools' rep ( and by the way this one considers itself the beacon of education in the world) refused to take the information and shouted at our rep saying that they have their own information to provide to the students and they dont want to take our information. They had forgotten that we make it our responsibility to find the best of breed in overseas knowledge, and tire ourselves in travelling to outer bounds to find the best to bring to our students. We do not want our students to hunt on the internet and then end up in places that are shacks and then have to forfeit the fees that they paid and of course more importantly lose that time that they had spent in learning and find out that the certificate is not acceptable. There are many ways to ensure that overseas institutions are accredited and safe, and this is our responsibility to find this information. Besides, we have built our business to complement the school system and till date the schools reject this, and find us interfering, I need to know why?

This story reminded me of two things. I am sure you will find them Very interesting.

When we first started our work, we sent faxes to all the schools to let them know that we are here and we are ready to help their students, and if possible a meeting can be arranged. Funny that none of the schools have answered us, except one who had actually phoned and started a lecture on why we dare to send a fax to them, and how rude are we in assuming that the school is ready to let us through its gate, and we should have contacted the ministry first to take permission to send a fax to them bla bla bla. I am not going to say what else the principal had said, suffice to end this first story by saying that we would have been in jail now! as we had committed a crime by interfering in the school life.

The second story which is more interesting is that I had gone to a café in a mall, to buy my coffee. I see many students around the cashier buying their frappochino; so as usual, and being friendly, I talked to them and we laughed, and talked more for almost an hour. Guess what they were doing there? it was their student day out, which they do 4 times a year! And every one of those times it will be in a shopping centre. 14-15 year old girls on their own in a shopping mall, doing nothing the whole day! Is this acceptable? And do we think that their trip is going to teach them how to buy stuff or merchandising? Or how to start a business? No, they had no goal, and they are not required to produce a report on their trip either. So rather than take them to a place that will enhance their knowledge and complement the school work, they are left in a mall feeling totally lost that they grab a friendly stranger like me to talk to.

I need your opinion please. if there is someone reading my blogs, I need to know what you think.

3 comments:

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  2. Suaad you don’t to give reasons of why you feel like that about any subject especially that important,,,
    I love the fact that you used itself for the school rep. you never know maybe she has a contract with other business like you that maybe you will close doors on her and there goes out her commission, ha ha ha, she deserve it,,,

    That uneducated for sure it looks like it school rep that reacted that way with you should know of the free marketing and advertizing is allowed when it does not touch any profanities or religion and bad manners…she should also see the TV that has more bad adds than anywhere else and maybe she should know about the mall issue
    You know Suaad maybe those Malls day breaks are in those schools because the mall management have offered her something if she brings those kids so they learn from young age that the place to be is the malls and when they do they will have to spend money there which is good for them

    Well I don’t know what to say, I see bad issues on a daily baises and it used to upset me to the point that makes me don’t want to go out so I don’t get that upset,,, some times you get num and or you say to yourself move on if you cant do anything about it… I also found out that I can’t teach everyone in the world, there are people that like being a dumb and useless in this world
    Wouldn’t great living to see that we as Gulf counties gain back our great historian people and education that everyone remembers once we had the best in the world and people from all over came to learn in our universities and from our great educators
    Yeh one day it is a dream when you have people in educational high authority that do such as your stories that you mentioned here,,,,

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  3. this is extremely sad, I finished school recently in Australia and the only time that I went to the mall part of a school excursion was when we went to a hospital part of our biology class and the mall was nearby to buy lunch.
    I completely agree with you, is shopping part of school now, we have the rest of our lives to go shopping but knowledge is valuable and like they say school is a place of learning.
    I cannot believe this, as my niece and nephew attend private schools that aren't cheap in the gulf, and to know that they are schools taking kids to malls... wow

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