LETTERS TO THE EDITOR- Students’ or labourers: Where does the buck stop?

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Dated- October 17, 2017
To 
The Editor
TNT- the Northeast Today
Educationist and MP Richard Hay recently said  the country(India) needed a revised curriculum  to raise  the standard of education. Talking about our state Meghalaya in general and I would like  to stress that there are schools in  the rural areas being neglected  to such an extent that when they start facing  the real world it becomes a bigger task  to overcome.
One such incident was in Laitkor when one of  the ward whom I know personally told me that they will be getting a holiday next week  to clean  the school and when checking  the notebook  the list of items for cleaning puzzled myself it ranged from spade, sickle etc…
Logic here is unknown it does not mean that when  the school is located either in  the outskirts or elsewhere, children's participation in cleaning  the school is one step towards earning grades.  Wikipedia defined Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW) a subject in Indian schools where students can choose from a number of vocational education activities – knitting, gardening, cooking, painting, carpentry and other crafts and hobbies, and clubbed community service for senior students (class IX on wards). This is for a child of class IV!
I do not mean  to deride any values in it but  to keep  the school clean and cleaning  the school are two different aspects and I hope that schools in  the future would understand this very well.
C. L. Kharkongor
Shillong