by IMAGES STAFF
The singer released a song decrying the state of the education system on World Education Day.
Everyone’s favourite singer and education activist Shehzad Roy marked World Education Day by sending a message to Pakistani parents: education shouldn’t be a burden.
Accompanied by students from schools run by his charitable organisation, the Zindagi Trust, Roy released a new song, ‘Late Ho Gaye’ on Saturday to talk about just that. The music video starts with the singer asking how far along an expectant mother is and following it up by inquiring whether the parents-to-be had enrolled their unborn child in school yet.
When asked how the kid could be enrolled when the parents have neither a name nor a gender, Roy appears on screen to tell them, “Late ho gaye!” (you’re late).
The track serves to criticise the many pressures children face in the course of their time in school, starting with the unreasonably early registration deadlines elite schools have, which often force parents to take two year olds for admissions interviews.
A schoolgirl then pleads, “Mujh ko zara, pehlay honay to do. Dil khol ke, thora ronay to do (At least let me be born first. Let me cry my heart out first).”
The song moves on to the linguistic stress many kids face trying to juggle an English education when they speak other languages at home. A succession of kids tell the viewer, “Teacher ne English mein daanta, ammi ka Urdu mein chaanta, abbu Punjabi bolay saada (My teacher scolded me in English, my mother slapped me in Urdu and my dad speaks in Punjabi).”
Next on the hit-list: tuition centres. Kids dressed up in work clothes tell the screen, “Jaise school se aao, tuition. Bhaari basta phir uthaao, tuition. Saans to lenay do, paani to peenay do, khana to khanay do, nahi! Tuition (As soon as you get home from school, tuition. With your heavy backpack, tuition. Let me catch my breath, drink a glass of water, have something to eat, no! Tuition)!”
The track also calls out parents for giving their kids screens instead of actual parental attention and also for not giving their children enough time to actually be themselves. Roy ends the video with a message — “On World Education Day, let’s pledge to not just burden our kids in the name of education and actually educate them well.”
Many celebrities found the singer’s video intensely relatable, with Maryam Nafees posting it on her Instagram story and comparing Pakistan’s education system to the rest of the world. She said parents are encouraged to send their kids to schools “once they’re emotionally ready to be out there in the world. Ideally at age three, four or five.”
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