PLEASE remove ‘Goodbye, Mr Chips’ from textbooks.

The entire story of the novella revolves around an English teacher of the 19th Century, Arthur Chipping, popularly known as Mr Chips.

The novella was included in the intermediate syllabus for about 30 years. But the misery of our education system is that no one cares what this novel is all about.

It leads to no moral lesson or logical conclusion. The love story of Mr Chips fascinates none.

The youth today finds no charm in studying this old novel, and the lecture on Mr Chips is the most boring one. Even our own love stories are more enchanting than this.

Is our literature so barren that we still have to linger on Mr Chips? No, absolutely not. We have a rich history of tales of pride and prestige, bravery and honour. We are not ready to accept what is ours but we still prefer what is not ours.

I ask the textbook boards to consider dropping Mr Chips and replace it with some recent English novel that could absorb the attention of its readers. It is time we said goodbye to Mr Chips.

Muhammad Aized

Gujranwala

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2017