The world is filled with schools but which ones would you be happy sending your kids to? Here are some examples of places of learning which might make you think twice.
The Waterlogged School
This has got to be a fake photo, hasn’t it? Can you imagine standing in water up to your chest all day long just to hear some teacher bang on about physics and geography and stuff? Having said that, you can see a tide mark on the board and they all seem to have wet shirts on. What is going on here? Does anyone know anything about the truth behind this photo?
The Rat Infested New York School
If you do a Google search on the world’s worst school you might expect to find out about run down, precarious education establishments in the third world. I know I did. However, you are going to get back a lot of results about a place called PS 106 in New York. Gasp! The worst school in the world is in the US. It seems that this place doesn’t have books, doesn’t do gym classes, is infested with rats and smells of animal urine. On the plus side, the kids sit around all day watching movies. Actually, thst isn’t really a plus point, is it?
The Laos School
Now here’s the chance for us to reflect for a moment. Would you prefer to send your kid to that school in New York with rats and no books or would you prefer to see them study in this run down, precarious looking building in Laos? I’m sure I read somewhere a while back that this country has far more unexploded land mines and bombs than anywhere else in the world, so the walk to school isn’t exactly free of danger either.
The Indian School
Now this looks like a very nice school and the pupils all look smart and well dressed. It’s just that, well, there’s so many of them. This is the City Montessori school in Uttar Pradesh in India. It has 47,000 children attending it and 3,800 staff. With over 1,000 classrooms and 3,700 computers it is classed as the biggest school in the world. Would you be happy sending your children to such a big school with so many pupils?
The Ghanian School
This is probably as good a point as any to say that I hated school. Mr Graham and Miss No-ankles (I can’t remember her real name but she knows who she is) were the worst teachers in the world and my classmates were a miserable bunch of abusive fools who made every single day a horrible one. Anyway, now that I can look back on these things with a bit less bitterness I can wonder whether I would have preferred to have gone to a run down school like this one in Ghana.
The Ugandan School
This is another poorly equipped and run down looking African school. There are many charities and other organisations trying to improve standards across the continent but the fact that the kids can study in this sort of environment is hard to believe.
The Chinese School Trek
In this case the school isn’t the problem; it’s the trek to get there. The children who live in Pili in China need to cross an icy river, ride camels, cross a single plank bridge and make dangerous climbs 4 times a year to travel the 120 miles to their school. The 2 day trek will disappear soon when the new road being built is completed.
Leave a Reply