Schools then vs now

The good old days. I still remember putting on my school uniform every morning as I got ready for school. Some days I do it excitedly while some other days I do it reluctantly but I guess it's safe for me to say the one thing we actually enjoyed about school back then was friends. I mean, friends made school enjoyable and it wouldn't have been the same without them. Just imagine how it would be if everyone had been home school and a teacher came to your house every day to tutor you, would it have been the same? (Main reason why I hate home lessons).

Just last week, I passed through one of the routes I sometimes take when returning from school and a wave of nostalgia hit me. It has been over 15 years but the road hasn't changed much, for a minute it actually felt like I was back in the past and I was returning from school. I am sure that a couple of things have truly changed over the years from how they used to be before now but it might be hard to know what has changed, considering I completed my basic education over a decade ago. But at least I know one good thing about being a student now which we didn't have in the past;

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Easy access to the Internet

There was Internet service back when I was in high school but how accessible was it? How many people owned phones that could access the internet? (Or even computers). Even if you managed to get hold of an internet-enabled device, the data subscriptions back then were very expensive. What was common back then were cybercafes, where you go to and pay to make use of the Internet on a computer for a specific duration (maybe 30 minutes or more). When we were given assignments, we had to rely on our textbooks.

I remember spending hours combing through books and looking for answers to assignments but these days, students can easily get resources through the internet. To add the icing on top this cake, we now even have AI everywhere which now makes things very easy. I imagined if we had AI back in the day, doing assignments would take me minutes, as I just give the question to AI and it spits out the answer. Even without AI, it would still be very easy as I can make use of Google but back then, we had to rely on what we got from books.

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The bad thing

Now let's look at the good thing about being a student back then that's no longer so now and that is; smartphones. It's funny how one thing can be good and bad at the same time but that's technology for you; it can be a double-edged sword sometimes which can hurt you if care is not taken. I don't know if this is the same everywhere but I heard that most schools no longer have a problem with students bringing their phones to school. This was something that was an abomination back in the day 😅 and for a good reason too.

I got my first phone when I entered SS1 and it was even a Nokia Torchlight with no access to the internet. Back then I was a bookworm and spent most of my time reading books just for fun. I got a Symbian phone a year later with access to the internet but it was strictly prohibited in school. Some of us still managed to bring our phones to school and keep them hidden but using them was difficult. But now that phones are allowed in most schools, it's definitely a problem, especially now that social media is a big deal.

You know, I was frustrated that I couldn't use my phone in school then but now I see there's a good reason behind it. But now, students use their phones at home and also in school, what time do they now have for studying? This has led to a lot of schools reducing their standard of grading; an A grade back in the day was from 80 upwards, but now it's around 65. Some schools don't even have the F grade anymore, failure isn't an option. Have you even seen the quality of examination questions they give these days? Honestly, students are getting dumber every day and it's all thanks to the advancement in technology.

The funny thing is that technology would have made them smarter and I believe some of them utilize it to get smarter by making use of the plethora of resources on the Internet but the majority focus on social media. Unfortunately, I don't think anything can be done about this rot unless you want to say we go back to the period without many smartphones lying around. One thing that could help is for schools to strictly prohibit students from bringing their phones to school, it won't totally solve the problem but at least it will make students stay focused on their studies while in school.

Thanks for reading

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