students carrying condoms to school need reflection
The recent event in Bangalore has sent a wave of shock across the parent and teacher community. There is an increasing trend in risky behaviour amongst students in India. One can easily reminisce from the time they were in school and compare it to the present generation's experience. Never had the parents imagined their wards carrying condoms, oral contraceptives, alcohol, lighters, cigarettes, whitener, and even a substantial amount of money in their school bags. Today substance use is prevalent in about 18% of school students in India.
According to the various reports, what initially began as a drill to check for phones, became an eye-opener for the school authorities. In combination with this, children as young as ten were found using abusive language, obscene gestures, and bullying peers. The schools carefully chose to handle the situation by issuing a notice to parents and suggesting counselling for the students instead of punishing or expelling them. However, counselling alone is not enough. As such behaviour becomes more common at schools, it becomes essential for parents and teachers to understand its root cause.
As students approach their teenage years, they undergo a period of transformation where physical, mental, physiological, and cognitive changes happen while asserting autonomy from their guardians. Their affinity towards experimenting grows exponentially to carry out the task of self-exploration. Adolescents adopt different methods of sexual exploration and other experimentation, which may constitute risky behaviour.
This journey of self-discovery is influenced by multiple factors like environment, peers, and family. The most common reason for such risky behaviour is societal pressure. When children are at a psychologically vulnerable stage, adults should be able to guide them and keep a healthy check on them. When information on any topic is easily accessible and available in multitudes, the parents must supervise the content consumption. Open conversations must be had to build trust amongst the family members, enabling better understanding. Experimentation and exploration should be allowed within a safe space and under specific parameters. Bangalore, is now highly urbanized and exposed to western culture. A race to match up with the speed of growth could be one of the leading factors for a change in the behaviour of adolescents.
Schooling has always been a time of focus where children gain knowledge and undergo experiences to develop personality and build character traits. At times like these, parents and teachers realize the importance of building strong core values in their children from a young age and guiding them toward a higher goal. Be it the sense of "Viveka" or the quality of discernment or "Anushasan" or discipline. It is high time we learn from the age-old wisdom our culture has to offer and go back to our roots to integrate Indian Knowledge Systems for more holistic development of our children.
This can be done primarily in two ways. A large part of this would be to revise the schools' curriculum and teaching methods in India. We need to move to a pre-Macaulay method of education which promotes culture and values over trends and competition and promotes Western values over Indian morals. The current education system fails to ground its students in reality. Another way would be to strengthen the values departed in every household. As the family structure moves to a more nuclear setup where both parents are working, there is a need for conscious and mindful parenting.
(Soumya Aggarwal is COO, Rishihood University; Aparna Patel is Program Coordinator, RishiEd, Rishihood University)