N

o parent should have to bury their child. The line from The Lord of the Rings comes back to my mind when watching news on how school orientation activities have allegedly claimed more young lives.

All these years we have constantly seen how schools, from elementary to university, embark on these so-called '€œorientation'€ programs at the start of every new school year.

The aims, according to those in charge, are to make new students '€œfamiliar'€ with the schools or have fun so they can get close to each other. No mention that it may cost one'€™s life.

As a parent, I feel what other parents have to go through '€” the helpless feeling of having to send their beloved children to new environments, hoping they would be treated just fine and feel at home.

But instead of giving a warm welcome to new students, they were yelled at and punished '€” not to mention asked to bring weird things and wear strange accessories.

I have a little bit of hope that such practice will eventually stop after seeing our Education and Culture Minister Anies Baswedan unhappy when finding out several schools were still conducting '€œweird'€ orientation activities despite regulations against them.

A blog joked that no one would feel welcome if they were being yelled at or punished '€” the new students would be much happier if they were treated to food.

As a parent, I have had my share of school orientation ordeals. When my daughter started junior high school, she not only had to go to school earlier than the regular start of the school day at 6:30 a.m. but she had to braid her hair, tie her braids with colorful ribbons, wear a large nametag and carry a list of other things.

Personally, I cannot remember anything '€œfun'€ about school orientation. I remember orientation as an embarrassing and scary experience.

During my high school orientation, I definitely did not enjoy being '€œpunished'€ by having to do push-ups in front of laughing seniors simply because I failed to bring five different oranges.

Who could possibly find five different oranges late at night after all-day orientation? We also had to return to school early in the morning for another day of '€œorientation'€.

At university, things only got worse. As a new student in a new city, I had just arrived shortly before the school day started. I used the first day to settle into my new boarding house and the second day to finish registration.

On the first day, I, along with other new students, was left in an open field, under the scorching sun for so long that I, who had not had time to have a proper breakfast, fainted and had to be carried to the lecturer'€™s room.

Believe me, it'€™s no fun to see people laugh at you for being so weak. All you want to do is hide under a blanket and sleep some more.

The '€œorientation'€ became a nightmare when we had to go camping.

I do love to read things like The Famous Five, The Three Investigators and even Karl May'€™s novels, but I had no real camping experience '€” cooking in the wild, setting up a tent and other '€œsurvival'€ stuff.

But that was not the scary part. At night, after a bonfire, we were divided into groups of two. My friend and I were told to follow a dark path that brought back flashes of scary images from horror films.

Feeling trapped and left with no other choice, we followed the route. We did not talk but held each other'€™s hands really tight. It was then that we heard a weird high-pitched sound that sent us up and running, fast.

Amid the frenzy, my friend kicked and almost tripped over tombstones. It turned out that we had steered out of the designated path and entered a cemetery. We only stopped when moments later a senior stopped us and took us back to the campsite.

Our scary dash in the dark is still fresh in my mind '€” although my friend and I believe the sound we heard was made by one of our seniors who was posted along the route.

Now, many years later, I am still unable to recall anything fun about orientation activities. Let'€™s be honest, if your children became victims, could you accept a simple '€œsorry'€?

'€” Alexa Hunter