Super dad

I always dreaded this day. My son’s open day at school. It was scheduled from 9 to 1 pm on a saturday. I had no idea about my kid’s performance this time.I was hoping that he doesn’t get a red card.

Oh sorry! Forgot to throw light about the card system of this school. If your kid scores less than 60% in any of the subjects, the parent will be given a red card. After this they will be forced to write a letter(or undertaking) to the school that if this performance continues they would voluntarily take TC and join another school. You will get a green card if the score is above 85 in all subjects. 60–85 category amazingly doesn’t get any cards!!

These thoughts about the card system send a chill down my spine. My son had already got a couple of red cards in the past year. One more red card, I guess he would be chucked out from the school. As I made my way into his class room, a girl’s parent came out with an intense expression, reminiscent of the climax scenes where our hero walks away from a location and there is a loud bomb explosion in the background.

“Red or green”, I asked him.
“ Green” he said with a sigh of relief.
I congratulated him and went inside the class room. There were only three parents in the room. I spotted my son and sat near him.
“ What do you think? Red?” I asked my son.
“Not sure, but there are a lot of red cards this time. “, he said nervously.

“Nikita”, called out the teacher. The girl along with her parent went and sat in the sofa opposite the teacher. Students call that sofa “hot seat”.
The teacher handed out a red card to the girl. But to everyone’s surprise she accepted it gleefully.
Her dad also seemed unmoved. The teacher took out a letter and requested the parent to sign it.

“I have an undertaking. You sign it. I will sign your undertaking after that. “, replied the dad.
The teacher wore a puzzled look! “ I will read it out for you.” said the dad.
“We hereby agree that our school’s teachers are not competent enough to coach your student. So we agree to release your ward to join another better equipped school”
(To be honest, his undertaking had better words. I dont recollect most of those.)
After he read this out aloud the entire room froze for a second!
He continued,” After you sign this I will publish this in social media”
The teacher tried to pacify him, “No sir! we are not going to dismiss your child. We are just trying to remind her that she has to improve”
“I don’t want any remainders. If you show me that undertaking again, I will sue you guys! My child was not well so she couldn’t perform well in one subject. Next time she will be up to speed!” thundered the dad.

“Now tear the undertaking apart in front of me. Not only for my child but if I ever hear any parent being tortured with this undertaking your school shall face the consequences. And have you implemented RTE(Right to education act)?” .
“Sir we will consult with…. “, before she could complete her sentence, the dad stormed out of the room.
Even though it was an air-conditioned room, the teacher was sweating profusely. She dint expect this reaction from a parent. Usually she is the one who dominates us, now she was on the back foot. All the parents in the room enjoyed this scene.

“Who is this guy”, I asked my son.
“Hotshot lawyer. Son of a prominent politician”, he replied
No wonder, I thought. We were all relieved. The lawyer dad instantly became everyone’s hero.
Its a pity that only influential dads like him could save our children from unfair practices by the school. But this school is no exception. Schools these days function like workshops which churn out robots with highest marks every years. In the process the school weeds out what they consider defective robots, to make it look like a six sigma company with no defects!! In fact when I narrated this incident to my colleague, he felt my son’s school was much better. In his child’s school all “slow learners” are put in a separate class and slowly that class is completely dismissed as they head towards twelfth grade. Not to forget the astronomical fees these workshops charge!!

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