LETTERS: A complete mess

I was really overwhelmed by an inspiring news story of a 17-year-old teenage girl, Prakriti Nakarmi, “Kids must be encouraged to follow their passion” (THT, March 12, Page 4). Needless to say, teaching profession is one of the most challenging jobs as well as most demanding ones everywhere in the world as mentioned by Elisha Shrestha in her Topic article “Teachers’ role” (THT, March 13, Page 8). Kudos to her for each and every mesmeric statement! The problems faced by teachers in today’s generation are that they lack self-respect. The concept of ‘dignity of labour’ is confined to slogans and rehearsals. In a nutshell, those who succumb to failure despite multifarious attempts in their life, be it failure to meet their ambition or owing to financial vulnerability or unavailability of preferred job opportunities in the country leaving them deserted and in a “nothing else to do” situation, they eventually join the teaching profession regardless of their internal yearnings to do something else in their life. No students can acquire knowledge from such frustrated teachers in a real sense in the midst of atrocious accents and stress situation for them regardless of their academic grades and progress. Such mentally unstable teachers who are searching for other options for their better future can never motivate students to excel in the field of their interest. Their budding talents have just become a waste owing to the lack of dedicated professional teachers. To make matters worse, the number of dissatisfied teachers seems to be increasing like never before in the days to come owing to the prevalent traditional methodology of teaching-learning activities, let alone lack of motivation and encouragement by society to assist them to perform at their best. The existing educational system, particularly in Nepal, has become a complete mess, much to the chagrin of the avid learners. Hence, every teacher needs to learn child psychology and groom him/her according their interest.

Hiring bouncer-looking teachers makes the classroom more like a military drilling place in which the students cannot interact with such teachers who always want their wards to be well-disciplined and well-dressed, not mentally prepared to learn new things without any fear. Child-centric teaching-learning environment.

Sanjog Karki, Tansen

Minority rights

The landmark Hindu marriage law passed by Pakistan’s Parliament should be viewed as a monumental step towards protecting minority rights in Muslim majority Pakistan. The nation has been critically assessed by several regional and international human and civil rights organisations for failing to protect minority rights as well as to prevent religious discrimination against minorities, hatred and sectarian violence within its borders. This landmark bill, if implemented at grassroots level, with success and determination will add to the credibility of the nation in protecting minority rights.

Saikat Kumar Basu, Canada