THIS week my daughter’s school calendar had rehearsals for a drama, an off-site visit, a mathematics and a science Olympiad, and a spelling contest. And some regular engagements as well. It seemed like a lot. And it was. It was quite tiring for the parents. It was even more tiring for the child. And it must have been tiring for her teachers as well. Is all of this making for a better learning environment? Is she learning better or more due to all this extra activity? Or have these become fads that schools have to subscribe to, irrespective of outcomes, simply because this is expected of them now?

A typical school day for a child is already stressful and busy. The children have to get up early (schools start around 8am) to make it to class. They stay in school till 2pm or so and get home by 2:30pm or 3pm. Most days they have homework. Many children take tuitions. Many have Quran reading lessons. Some have classes for other things too. And the children have to be in bed by 8pm or 9pm, otherwise they will not get the hours of sleep they need. How do additional activities that require extra preparation make any sense in this calendar?

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I am sure mathematics and science Olympiads and other competitions help. They allow learning beyond the curriculum. They open up students’ minds to critical thinking (though the regular curriculum should do that as well); they allow peer cooperation and team-based learning; encourage competition, and so on. Literature identifies some of these and other benefits ad nauseam. But there are costs too.

All of these competitions cost extra, and of course, schools charge parents for them. Although many of these activities are said to be ‘voluntary’, if most of your peers are doing them, it is hard for a child or a parent to say no.

If parents and teachers are willing to rig competitions, it’s not about learning anymore.

These competitions can be disruptive. It is not as if these competitions are just surprise tests held one fine day. Now schools give many months’ notice to children to prepare for these tests; they provide the curricula and sample tests and questions; and students and parents spend long hours preparing for these competitions. How is all this any different from regular curricular learning? Added to the regular workload, it just means more learning for the child. We just end up expanding the work and syllabus for the students.

And then there is the competition among children and, more importantly, among parents. When a child does not do well in a competition, and of course, there will always be many who will not do well in one competition or the other, the disappointment is significant. Not reaching the next round of the competition has negative connotations attached to it. Many children feel it keenly. Many parents feel it super keenly.

Children who make it to the next round sometimes behave poorly, lording it over their friends. Competition can be good, but how does arrogance help children be better learners or human beings?

And then there are the parents. They are much worse than the children. If their child does not make it to the next round, they feel shame. And they make their children feel guilty as well. If their child makes it to the next round, they boast a lot — even if it is just a Grade 5 spelling competition! Is that a good reason to make other children and parents feel jealous? What are we teaching our children? Was this the purpose of these competitions?

Recently, there have been items on social media where people have accused teams of using coercive and allegedly unfair means to win in spelling competitions. True or not, the fact that these became issues on social media tells us how important some of the outcomes are. And the fact that people were not surprised to hear about these alleged incidents tells us how seriously these competitions and outcomes are taken.

Learning words and spellings, adding to one’s vocabulary and getting better at a language might have been the starting point for spelling competitions, but if we end up at a place where results and outcomes matter to the extent that parents and teachers are willing to rig competitions to secure the desired results, it is no longer about language or learning.

If non-curricular activities in math, language, science, writing or debating arouse my daughter’s curiosity about specific subjects or ways of thinking, arguing or communicating, I am all for it. I want children to be curious, to explore and to learn more. On the other hand, if it is just going to make her more competitive, more anxious about performance, and so on, I am not sure if these activities are worth it. They become just a fad, or worse, turn harmful for our children.

Doing a bit extra in school, and learning beyond the curriculum can be fun for children and they can add value too. It seems most of these competitions and Olympiads started off in this spirit. But if these activities become expectations, if they become sites for competition and parental rivalries and pettiness, they remain neither fun nor useful for children and their learning. Taken to an extreme, they can be quite bad for children’s mental health.

But it is difficult to resist them. If others are doing it, how can a school resist the pressure? If other children are doing it, how can a parent resist the pressure? In fact, many parents want to show off their children’s knowledge or abilities, and these competitions provide them with a platform. The poor children.

Competitions and activities can be excellent learning aids, and they can be fun for children as well. But doing them in excess can be harmful. Schools need to be reflective enough to be able to recognise when they are moving from one side to the other.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives and an associate professor of economics at Lums.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2025