First day chaos

IT'S a busy week for parents with schoolgoing children. Especially those that have children entering pre-school, primary one and Year 7.

Apart from practical issues, there is also the emotional dilemma of leaving your child in a strange environment, worrying whether he or she will be okay. Yesterday, The Brunei Times published first day of school articles and photographs of students crying, clinging to their parents. It is, undoubtedly, their first step towards becoming independent. A step that will take more or less about 20 years until the child graduates from university.

Whether the child realises it or not, there is a lot of hope that accompanies his or her first step into that classroom. How will he or she turn out? Imam Ghazali stated: "Knowledge exists potentially in the human soul like the seed in the soil; by learning the potential becomes actual."

Learning does not stop after the bell rings, a sign that classes have ended. Parents are urged to monitor their children's homework, giving them encouragement; but also allow them time and space to be physically active and to spend quality time with their siblings and friends. Apart from moral support, parents are also busy running last minute errands, including looking for workbooks, which many say have run out of stock in various bookstores throughout the nation. One parent said, he had to photocopy the workbook, just to ensure his daughter do not miss out on anything. Many were appealing to the authorities to address this issue.

Fortunately, yesterday, the Ministry of Education responded to the parents' "state of panic" and urged them to cease photocopying these workbooks as it is considered a copyright infringement.

Parents, instead, can get the workbooks at a temporary stall set up at the ground floor of the ministry's new office at the Old Airport. It is good to know that the ministry is responding promptly to the problem raised by parents.

Hopefully, everyone will be more prepared next year.