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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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Curbing school violence
Stop churning out unemployable youth
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Curbing school violence OF late, the incidents of violence in schools have gone up. The neo-globalised Indian society seems to have picked up all the dangerous vices of the West, ranging from dating and pre-marital sex to gun culture in our school system. Since the Gurgaon shoot-out in December 2007, when a 14-year-old boy was shot dead by two of his classmates at a public school, there have been a number of such cases in various parts of the country. In January 2008, three Class X students of a public school in Sohna were attacked by their classmate along with six of his friends. In another incident, a 15-year-old student was killed by a 17-year-old classmate at a government school in Madhya Pradesh. Yet another incident occurred in Bangalore, where a 16-year-old boy was shot by two of his classmates with an air gun, seriously injuring the boy. In February, a student of a central school was stabbed by a junior in New Delhi. These incidents and many more are an indication of mounting culture of violence in otherwise peaceful schools in our country. These killings have clearly revealed that there are some problems in our educational system and family upbringing which need immediate solutions. Violence in schools is indeed a matter of great concern today. We need to evolve some therapeutic community model which could cultivate tolerance and compassion among the younger generation. The World Report on Violence and Health, 2002, says that on an average 565 children, adolescents and young adults between the ages of 10 and 29 years die each day as a result of interpersonal violence across the world. Experts feel that one of the most important possible risk factors for violence among students is the growing exposure to the mass media. Due to the unplanned and abrupt onslaught on us in terms of the Internet, video games, mobile phones and satellite television, the parental supervision over the children has declined considerably, increasing peer pressure and emptiness in students. As a result, the instances of alcoholism, drugs abuse and carrying arms are on the rise. In the present-day society of change and ferment, suicides due to academic stress, eve-teasing, cases of bullying apart from many other neuro-psychiatric disorders among students are increasing day by day. According to a World Health Organisation estimate, childhood neuro-psychiatric disorders would become one of the most common causes of morbidity, mortality, and disability among children and would rise proportionately by over 50 per cent internationally by 2020. This trend points towards the probability of a subsequent increase in the violence in schools. Many parents, due to their hectic daily life, have little time to get involved in their child’s school activities by supporting homework, talking to his/her teachers, and attending parent-teacher meetings and getting involved in other activities. Simultaneously, our teachers, too, are not trained to handle students’ behavioural problems. Though a healthy and stable family is the most important social institution that can control the psychological or social factors which contribute to the violent behaviour among students, the role of child counsellors is equally important in the fast-changing family and school environment. Therefore, schools should appoint child counsellors to guide students in various ways to cope with the present-day competitive lifestyles. Besides students, these counsellors can enable both parents and teachers to cope with difficult situations. The counsellors, in liaison with the family and school, can examine the academic and learning-related problems of students in relation to their psycho-social and economic environment. They can help stabilise the negative consequences of globalisation and academic environment by adopting conciliatory and collaborating intervention strategies. School child counsellors are, in fact, an extended arm of the teachers in fulfilling the educational goals. They act as caseworkers, group workers and community organisers. Some schools in cosmopolitan cities like Delhi have already appointed child counsellors to act as a link between students’ families and the school and help solve various behavioral problems like truancy, mood tantrums, inattentiveness, and indiscipline among students. A child counsellor consults teachers and parents about techniques for creating an atmosphere in which students feel free and are motivated to learn at school as well as at home. The counsellor assists parents to cope with issues in their everyday lives and tells them about ways and means to take time off to note disturbing behaviuoral patterns of the child like an unusual angry outburst, excessive fighting, bullying, remaining in isolation and lacking friends, which can be some of the warning signals for a serious impending danger. Counselling is an important area of intervention in developed countries but it is yet to take-off as far as India is concerned. However, with the changing psycho-social realities, child counselling would gain momentum towards ensuring a peaceful school and a stable family environment. The writer is Reader (Social Work),
Punjabi University, Patiala
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Stop churning out unemployable youth OUR education system needs to be revamped as it is churning out unemployed youth in large numbers in its present form. Though unemployment may be due to some compelling reasons beyond the control of the system, the ‘unemployables’ are surely the by-products of our education system. As a result, big corporations fail to find a capable workforce in the country. It is 85 per cent attitude and 15 per cent knowledge for landing in a right job, says motivation guru Shiv Khera. Ironically, we give 100 per cent to attain 15 per cent knowledge and simply ignore the other vital aspects of education. According to India Labour Report, 2007, there is a huge mismatch between demand and supply of workforce. Ninety per cent jobs require vocational skills but 90 per cent of the students are stuffed with bookish knowledge. Unable to visualise any future, 57 per cent students leave their studies by the time they reach the 8th standard. The poor quality of skills shows up in low income rather than unemployment. Fifty-eight per cent of the graduates earn less than Rs 75,000 per year, while the three-fourth of the school finishers earn less than Rs 50,000 per year. According to the National Knowledge Commission, there is need for at least 1,500 universities for the enrollment ratio in higher education to reach up to 15 per cent in 2015 from the existing 6 per cent. The government has allowed private participation in the education field. As a result, the number of B.Ed colleges in Punjab rose from 37 to 114 in one year and now there are around 150 such colleges. Needless to say, majority of them lack quality. Nearly all the colleges have doubled the student intake, resulting in severe shortage of qualified staff. In order to cope up with the situation, authorities concerned have relaxed the eligibility norms. Now, a postgraduate having the BEd degree is eligible for lectureship, and with five years of experience in that capacity, he becomes eligible for the post of Principal without MEd or Ph.D. Will diluting standards of eligibility criteria for staff promote quality education? The Mungekar Committee recommended that Ph.D and M.Phil degree-holders be exempted from appearing in the qualifying test (National Eligibility Test) for lectureship, which has resulted in a rush for an M.Phil degree. Unheard universities sprang up overnight offering M.Phil in various subjects. The UGC has relaxed the NET condition so that universities and colleges can fill the vacancies. Academicians feel that in the absence of any mechanism to ascertain the authenticity of Ph.D and M.Phil degrees, it will only result in diluting academic standards. The Mungekar panel now feels that relaxing the norms for teaching staff can impair quality, which can be ensured through attractive job environment with stringent norms for selection criteria.. It has now reversed its interim recommendation and has proposed for the reintroduction of the NET in order to maintain high standards in imparting of higher education. Students in colleges and universities are fed with decades-old syllabus. With the exception of a few private institutes, there is no initiative to ad new vocational courses. We are producing copybook graduates who are far off the track from what corporate houses are looking for. Contractual appointments, guest faculty and ad hoc appointments are doing more harm than good as teachers are worried about his their own security rather than bringing about all round development. Regular appointments, stricter eligibility norms with attractive financial incentives for staff along with conducive educational environment will help rather than teachers fighting it out through strikes and rallies to enforce their rights. The course curriculum should be reframed by keeping in mind the requirements of corporate houses. The teacher should look beyond textbooks and create the curiosity among the students to look for information from other available resources. Discussions, talks and debates on current popular issues should be held regularly. More opportunities should be given to the students to open up and put across their views without any inhibitions. Today, most of the companies prefer those candidates who are having good communication skills as well as knowledge. They may overlook knowledge if a candidate is having exceptionally good communication skills. Ironically, we focus on the former and completely ignore the latter. So, there is need to to develop the personality and positive outlook of the students to produce employable graduates because unemployable graduates reflect poorly on teachers and our educational system.
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CAMPUS NOTES
Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak THE recent move of the MDU authorities of shifting the university Controller of Examinations (CoE), Sukhbir Singh, comes as fallout of the recent MD/MS entrance row. It may be pertinent to mention here that the PG entrance exam conducted by MDU in February was cancelled following allegations of serious irregularities. Sukhbir Singh, who was the CoE at that time, has been shifted to the publication cell. Deputy Registrar K. C. Dadhwal, who was holding the post of MDU Finance Officer, has been made the CoE in place of Sukhbir Singh. This development has brought the bitter episode of replacing Dadhwal, the then CoE, with Sukhbir Singh to the memory of the university officials. The move of replacing Dadhwal with Sukhbir Singh last year had raised many an eyebrow. The decision was taken at a time when the then MDU Vice-Chancellor, Dr R. S. Dhankar, was abroad and the then Rohtak Divisional Commissioner, N. C. Wadhwa, was the acting Vice-Chancellor of the university. In a letter sent to the acting Vice-Chancellor by the state authorities, it was stated that several complaints had been received regarding the functioning of the department concerned. Following this, an inquiry was ordered into the allegations and later Dadhwal was removed from the post. The hasty manner in which Dadhwal was shifted had put a question mark on the real purpose behind the move. There was reportedly no such specific complaint against Dadhwal which warranted his removal. Secondly, Dadhwal had served on several important positions in the university administration and had an impeccable track record. Nonetheless, the latest move of bringing Dadhwal back as CoE has vindicated the stance of the university faculty and other officials who were opposed to the move of removing him from the post.
Exam schedule changed THE MDU authorities have changed the examination schedule of MA (previous and final) classes. As per the revised schedule, the paper "Introduction to Mathematics and Statistics (old) 2017-A" of MA-previous (Economics) will now be held on May 29. The paper "Ancient Societies (2027)" of MA-previous (History) will be held on May 27. MA-final (Education) paper "Special Education (2627-A)" will be held on June 7, while MA-final (Political Science) "India's Foreign Policy (2545)", which was to be held on May 26, will now be held on May 27. MA-final (Sociology) paper "Sociology of Management (old) 2570-A" will be held on May 29, while "Industrial Sociology (2566-A)" paper of the same class will now be held on May 30. MA-final (Hindi) paper "Hindi Natak aur Rangmanch" will be held on May 25 instead of May 24. MA-final (economics) paper "Public Economics (old)" will be held on May 23 instead of May 20. MSc (Mathematics) paper "Fluid Dynamics (old)" will now be held on May 27, while "Mechanics of Solids (old)" paper will be held on June 1. The timings and centres of examination will remain unchanged. — Contributed by Sunit Dhawan
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Armed ForcesIndian Army, Additional Directorate General of Recruiting, Rtg TGC Entry, AG’s Branch, Army Headquarters, West Block III, R K Puram, New Delhi 1100661)
Technical Graduates Course (January
2009)
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