lawmakers and teachers can play politics elsewhere, but not in education. let people come forward to demand well-equipped, well-staffed and functional schools for the weaker sections, the deprived, the Dalits and the minorities. Failure will be catastrophic
These are election times and there is no dearth of news and related materials for the print media and the electronic media. Only the socially sensitive have space and time to report on events that have serious implications but often are treated as ‘routine’. A young boy of 16 years from Shikohabad in western Uttar Pradesh committed suicide as he could not pay the second installment of Rs 7,000 that his school has demanded as fee for permission to one and all to copy in the board examination. His father, a three wheeler driver had arranged Rs 4,000 already. The school principal is reported to have asked the boy to bring in the remaining amount, otherwise he would not be permitted to appear in the next paper. When the mother pawned some items, the son could not bear it and ended his life. At a considerable distance from Uttar Pradesh, a 13-year old girl in Chennai was humiliated, made to stand outside the classroom for delay in payment of fees. A victim of this unprofessional humiliation in school, this child committed suicide.
Two young lives are lost for no fault of theirs, two families are devastated because some people are ‘discharging’ their duties and some others thoroughly incompetent are educating the generations ahead. And these are not the only two cases. There would be many more. Think of the young boys and girls who were promoted to the next higher class during the first eight years in schools without anyone caring for their levels of attainments, as per the reforms introduced by Mr Kapil Sibal, who thought no detention would give him a great report and popularity amongst young students. As these children go to class 10, they are provided ‘guided and secure environment’ to copy in the examinations, after they make the prescribed payment. How fair is the system to themIJ Are we not playing with their livesIJ Someone somewhere must be accountable, but none ever is.
Malpractices in school board examinations are, unfortunately, getting institutionalised, resulting in tragic consequences in several cases. There is little evidence of any effective preventive measures being undertaken by the Governments and its agencies. Two major issues that emerged in school education in India during the last three decades are reduction of stress inflicted on children during their stay in schools and, most importantly, create an ‘inviting’ environment in the school that makes the child feel at home in the school. There has to be a variation between home environment and the school environment but one thing remains common; the child must get abundant love both in the family and the school. It is essential to inculcate a deep-rooted feeling amongst every child that he is being loved and liked both in the family and also in the school.
Shikohabad to Chennai is a long distance, but the lack of morality, empathy, honesty, and desire to be supportive to children, sadly enough, remains equally prevalent there also. A 13-year old girl child, deeply humiliated by her teacher for failure to deposit the school fee in time commits suicide. The girl, made to stand outside the class was being punished for something about which she herself could do nothing. Her parents were unable to pay her fees. In a country where official machinery shouts from roof-top claiming credit for having passed the The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act, 2009, for free and compulsory education becomes a mute witness for the loss of this life of a girl child. The principal in Shikohabad acted dishonestly and the class teacher in Chennai just did not know what are her responsibilities towards children. May be she was never trained appropriately to handle such frequent situations as in this particular case.
Over the years, State Governments have found it convenient to appoint untrained teachers in schools on a pittance of an honorarium. Most of them are untrained and under-qualified. Most of them are frustrated from day one: They are supposed to perform all the tasks, if not more, that are assigned to their seniors; the regular teachers who may be getting four to five times more emoluments and several other benefits. People are aware how regular appointments rare made and what are the considerations, other than those on records that make the difference between a selection and a non-selection!
A former Haryana Chief Minister stands convicted in a teacher selection fraud. In Uttar Pradesh, prospective teachers who qualified the Teacher Eligibility Test, in November 2011, and responded to the advertisement for the recruitment of 72,825 posts of teachers are still nowhere in the line of appointments. The politics in recruitment has played its part. The rules of recruitment that were notified in the times of the last BSP Government were not found appropriate by the present Government. No one cares about those who are in schools without teachers. Who is worried about young persons waiting for the jobIJ There are 65 lakh applicants for these 72,825 posts.
The Supreme Court has turned down the modifications in the recruitment rules made by the SP Government and has ordered it to complete the recruitment within the next three months. It would appears impossible to any independent observer who knows how the level of lethargy, complacency and corruption in the education system of Uttar Pradesh. Teacher recruitment is in a mess in several other States as well.
The manner in which teacher preparation has been commercialised throughout the country is no secret. Unfortunately, the common perception that prevails gives little importance to the training of teachers. All those who rue the absence of quality in higher education, research, political leadership, rise of corruption, erosion of humanistic and moral values must find time to seriously ponder over the plight of the school education system that is being run on public funds. High-fee charging private schools, euphemistically called public schools, are needed but these can never solve the problems of the around seventy percent children in sarkari schools.
These two tragic demises cited above must trigger a movement in the country: Play politics elsewhere, but not in education. let people come forward to demand well-equipped and well-staffed schools for the weaker sections, the deprived, Dalits and the minorities.