My phone screeches to life at 7:00 am. I put it to sleep. Back up arrives at 7:10 am. I put it to sleep. Again and again, new waves of resistance beat down my longing to stay in bed, until finally, the General turns up. My mum. I love her to pieces, but she comes in and does the blinds. Sunlight’s on her side, glaring through the Great Grey British sky, arriving right on my face. 

“It’s 7:40. Don’t make your sister late!” She says like clockwork, before leaving to pull the same tricks on my brothers. Reluctantly, I pull myself out of bed, with the only thing making my legs move being the fact that I don’t want to run into the Receptionist for being late. If my Mum’s the General (an extremely kind and loving one at that), then the Receptionist’s the Field Marshal (an extremely feared and dangerous one at that). 

Fast forward to 8:25 am. First up, 20 minutes of form time (AKA homeroom). I sleep with my eyes open as the teacher talks about current affairs and important values etc. etc.. Period’s one and two, almost nothing goes in. Three and four are a little better - probably the time we’re all the most concentrated. Five is just about survivable, and six is spent watching the clock tick, until 2:45 pm. Most days, we run for freedom at that point, but once or twice a week, we have period 7. Anyone who can pay attention during period 7 deserves an award.  

Me and my sister generally spend the walk home swapping stories from the day and laughing (usually at each other). When we arrive home, we change, eat and I procrastinate doing my homework. I scroll through Netflix watching trailers and bug my sister, who’s usually genuinely trying to study. But by the time my brothers are home (which isn’t long at all - 20 minutes tops), I’m in my room, sifting through stacks of homework. 

And whether you’re across the ocean from me, my neighbour or on another planet, I’m pretty sure every high schooler can relate.

Wake up early, go to school, come home after at least 6 hours, barely eat, study some more, and repeat. And if you don’t do the homework, then you get detention - you have to stay at school for longer. Little do they know, if you were home at that point, you’d probably be studying anyway. They’re not wasting your free time, they’re wasting your study/homework time. Then they don’t even question why you’re late the next day (because you were up late studying after getting home late), it’s just another detention. And next thing you know, it’s sleep or detention; sleep’s just an option, not a necessity.

You’re waking up early just to listen to assemblies about the importance of sleep. You’re staying up late to study, but at the same time you want to spend time with your family. Friday night, you all settle down to watch a movie. And it’s amazing - you’re enjoying yourself, because they make you happy. Then it’s Saturday morning and you realise missing one night of homework means twice as much over the weekend. But you keep trying. Keep trying to juggle family, school, homework and hobbies, even if it means sleepless nights and missing meals. Because family, hobbies and if you're lucky one or two others, are the only things keeping you sane. The only good things getting you out of bed in the morning. 

And you’re putting in so much effort, juggling everything you want to do and have to do, trying to put together a future whilst living in the present. But there’s always those teachers who don’t do their job. You’re putting in hours of homework, but that one teacher (or if you’re really unlucky, more than one) just turns up to the lesson and calls it quits. They hand out one worksheet, maybe talk for five minutes, and that’s it. Then you have to go home and teach yourself what they didn’t. You tell yourself you don’t know what they’re going through, but at the same time you know what you’re going through. And you know that you’re getting homework in on time regardless. You’re making time for family, regardless. You’re spending a little time every day doing what you love, regardless. 

And if you didn’t get your homework in on time, or yourself in on time, or if you forget one piece of equipment, you have to face the consequences. Yet, they don’t. How come, some teachers can put in zero effort to teach you, yet never face the consequences? They teach you nothing, then say the entire class failed the test because you didn’t put enough effort in. 

So, to sum it up, why? Why do we have to choose between sleep and school? Why are we suffering consequences for wanting to spend time with our family? Why are we punished for mistakes, yet teachers can do nothing and get away with it? Why are we simply told that having a bad teacher means it’s up to you to teach yourself, rather than having something done about them? Imagine being a nurse, but the Doctor’s don’t do their part. Or being an engineer, but the instructions are only half complete. They wouldn’t get away with it. So why do teachers? 

Why do they say ‘if she passed, then you should’ve too’, when they don’t see the sleepless nights, the stress and the struggle that the students getting straight A’s, the students doing well in every aspect of their life, go through?

So to every Secretary of State for Education around the world, for every Department of Education, for every teacher and headteacher, I ask you, why?