When learning becomes a burden, the future loses its light
By Babar ul Aslam
For years, I have been teaching students from different private schools across the Kashmir Valley, and through this experience, I have come face-to-face with some painful truths about our education system. These children come from various towns, backgrounds, and families, but the issues they carry into the classroom are surprisingly similar. As a teacher, I cannot ignore these patterns anymore, because they are silently shaping a future that may not be as bright as we hope for our Valley’s next generation.
One of the biggest problems I see is the unbearable cost of books. Every new session becomes a financial challenge for parents. They walk into the market with hope but walk out stressed, sometimes even embarrassed. Many of these books are unnecessarily expensive, and the saddest part is that most of them are either underused or irrelevant to the actual learning needs of the child. Education is supposed to empower people, but for many families, it is slowly becoming a pressure they silently carry, choosing between basic needs and expensive textbooks that offer very little real learning.
This issue becomes even more troubling when I look at the smallest children, our LKG and UKG students. These tiny kids, who should be learning through play, curiosity, colours, shapes, stories, and small discoveries, are instead being made to carry books they cannot even read a single line from. Their minds are not ready for the level of content printed in those pages. Yet they are forced to memorise without understanding, write without realising, and study without joy. Kindergarten is supposed to build a foundation, but what we are doing instead is building pressure. I often see these kids struggling, not because they are weak, but because the system is demanding something that their age simply cannot absorb.
Then comes another disturbing trend: inflated marks. Many students I teach score extremely high on their report cards, but struggle to read a paragraph fluently or solve basic questions independently. Their marks do not reflect their learning; they reflect a system trying to impress parents and maintain its reputation. When marks become tools of satisfaction rather than honest evaluation, children grow up with an unhealthy confidence. They feel they are excelling when, in reality, their basics remain weak. Parents, too, fall into the illusion of good performance, unaware of the gaps that may trouble their children later in life. This culture may look harmless today, but in the long run, it steals discipline, reduces effort, and breaks motivation.
All of these costly books, age-inappropriate content, and dishonest grading create a cycle where education looks perfect on the outside but is hollow on the inside. As a teacher, I see the consequences clearly. Students lose interest, lose connection with learning, and lose the natural curiosity that every child is born with. Instead of creating confident learners, we are creating confused minds. Instead of preparing children for life, we are preparing them only for marks.
And this worries me. Deeply.
Our Valley deserves an education system that nurtures, not pressures; that builds understanding, not memorisation; that values effort, not just results. Children need honest evaluation, simple learning material, and a classroom where they feel safe to ask, explore, imagine, and grow. If we want a brighter future for Kashmir, we must return to the basics: genuine learning, meaningful teaching, and age-appropriate content.
I am sharing this not as a complaint, but as a concern from someone who works with these children every day. They have immense potential, immense talent, and immense energy, but they need the right environment to grow. A system that focuses on real growth, not artificial achievements. A system that supports parents instead of burdening them. A system that understands that education is not a business, but a responsibility.
The writer is a teacher
bh*********@***il.com