INDIAN SCHOOLS- ANY PARALLELS TO PORTUGAL or NW-EUROPE II

New Delhi: Molestation of a girl from Arunachal Pradesh in a New Friends Colony school, manhandling of teachers at a school in Timarpur, and now violence against a group of schoolgirls at Shalimar Bagh — the incidents of rowdyism in government schools are increasing. This despite the fact that these schools are posting better results in Board exams and have implemented life-skill programmes like YUVA.
Teachers attribute the alarming trend to disproportionate student-teacher ratio. There are not enough teachers to control the high number of students who study in government schools. They also say students are now blatant in their approach. They have nothing to lose with a ban on corporal punishment in place. In such a scenario, will the defaulters go unchecked?
Explained D K Tiwari, secretary, Government Schools Teachers’ Association, ‘‘It has become difficult for teachers to maintain discipline among students as they no longer fear any action.’’ Tiwari added that there has been an increase of nearly five lakh students in 930 government schools in the city in the last six years. However, the government hasn’t recruited enough teachers all these years.
‘‘We worked hard to improve the results due to which the number of students opting for government schools has increased. But there are nearly 7,000 posts of teachers still vacant,’’ said Tiwari. He added: ‘‘We need 14,000 more teachers for over 13 lakh children studying in government schools today. We have conveyed this to the chief minister but nothing has changed.’’
According to teachers, many classrooms have 80 to 100 students whereas the prescribed teacher-student ratio is 1:40. ‘‘How do we give personal attention to every student? It’s almost a crowd out there,’’ Tiwari said.
‘‘We can’t strike a name off the rolls in case of misconduct. The students in a class are from different age groups as many admissions are done due to political pressure. So it becomes difficult to work on the attitudes of such a heterogeneous group,’’ said a senior government official. ‘‘The posts are sanctioned by the finance department. They take nearly two to three years to sanction posts. In the meantime, the number of students shoot up. Besides recruiting more teachers will need a huge financial outlay that the government can’t afford,’’ the official

BRAVERY TEST AT SCHOOL

After the publication of the incredible and ridiculous so called bravery test in TIMES OF INDIA a political reaction came: Tamil Nadu school education minister Thangam Thennarasu directed officials to issue circulars to schools across the state, instructing them not to subject students to “any kind of unsafe practices”. The direction comes in the wake of a shocking report published in The Times of India on Tuesday about a government school in Villupuram organising a ‘bravery show’, in which a motorcyclist rode over the outstretched hands of young students, aged about 10 years, on July 15.
The video attached speaks for itselves how can anyone educational skilled person come to the idea to force kids to this kind of bravery test
Reacting strongly to the Villupuram incident, activists have condemned the school for “failing in its basic duty to protect and provide safety to its wards” and demanded action against the management. ‘‘When acts of bravery or adventure appear even remotely harmful to the child, they shouldn’t be a part of it,’’ an activist said.
Ossie Fernandes, convenor of the Tamil Nadu Child Rights Protection Network, said, “This is torture, not bravery. Anything could have gone wrong. The school shouldn’t be asking children to perform such feats. It has seriously failed in its duty to protect the children.”
Joint secretary of the Indian Council for Child Welfare Girija Kumarbabu said it was akin to child abuse when schools asked children to take part in such shocking events without bothering about their safety.