Imagine a three-year-old child. His mum wakes him up at 6.30 a.m, even on a cold wintry day, to take him to school. Wash him, give him a quick breakfast and push him to school for a whole six hours. Some are still sleepy or go with a broken heart, knowing it is not easy to stick it for those long hours.

By noon all these kids are extremely tired. Some start crying or fall asleep. It is a hard day’s work even for grown-ups. Workers in factories, machine operators and drivers and so on are entitled to a break every four hours but not these children. Some may argue, but these only go to play. So is it necessary for these children to be locked in school to play for six hours? Isn’t a four-hour day enough?

If a child, even at six, goes out to play on a Saturday or Sunday at 7.30 a.m. and returns home at about 2 p.m, what will his mum say? It is ok, he was just playing!

I believe mothers want to go to work, mostly from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and so they find it convenient to push their kids to school just before they start work until after they finish. Is that true love and care of our children? Shame.