Indian Schools Part 1

Last week's incidents were hard to ignore.
Last Thursday, five girls were killed in a stampede while 35 others were seriously injured in a New Delhi school!
Yes, in a school..

The few known details of the story:
The children X, XI, XII classes of the school were supposed to take their first term examination.
There was a lot of confusion regarding the seating arrangement.
The boys in the school building were asked to go the first floor.
There were already a large number of girls in the first floor corridors and classrooms.
The boys started misbehaving with the girls! (in a school!? these kids are no older than 17!)
Out of panic, the girls started running down the narrow staircase resulting in a stampede .. which killed 5 girls and injured another 35 critically!

I can't help wondering how this could happen in a school, that too during exams, when all the administrative staff and teaching staff are supposed to be more vigilant.
How many children study at this school? The girl-students of 3 classes run down a staircase and it results in a stampede! Children run up and down staircases when they hear the morning school bell and the evening home bell!
Is the infra structure of the school in such a worse state that stampedes can happen?!

Secondly, Boys misbehaving with girls on finding them on the first floor?
What kind of school are these children going to.. just the sight of girl-students makes boys behave like animals?
What kind of school are these children going to.. girls panic at the sight of boys and run?
What kind of archaic/ghastly/prison-like school is this?.. which keeps students of opposite sex away from each other.
Don't they know the 'taboo factor' makes teenage kids behave in an ignorant and a negative way?

As much as we would like to believe, this is not an isolated incident. Similar things have happened in other states.
Many a time, small children, especially girls were made to strip as an act of punishment and humiliation.
Sometimes children have been tied to trees, made to stand in the scorching sun, caned to the point of death.
No wonder so many children hate the idea of schools and drop-out. They would rather go and work as manual labour.

What kind of teachers do we have in our schools?
It's not enough for India to officially declare teachers' day, children's day.
It's not enough for us to celebrate Saraswati puja and conduct other forms of reverence personifying teachers.
Let's for once stop living in the shadows of the past. Let's stop eroding the Indian culture concepts, just to cover up over nasty, humiliating deeds of today.

Arguably, many teachers in local schools, Zilla parishads do not undergo the proper teacher-training programs.
Many of them don't know how to handle a classroom. They sometimes don't even have an inclination to teach.
One of the biggest crimes committed in these kinds of schools is corporal punishments.
Some times children are even beaten by the teacher, just to satisfy his/her false ego!

Apart from being a crime, do we realize the idea we are putting in those tender minds?
Inducing corporal punishment is non-verbally saying : "I'm big, I can beat you up and no one will question me. I can get away with hurting you when ever I get angry"
This creates children who have a basic fear of being hurt by anyone or creates bullies who repeat the same acts inside and outside school. These characteristics grow with age, and start defining their personalities.

Why are there so many reports of sexual-exploitation in these kinds of schools? Looking at children as outlets for frustration and beating them is one big crime. But sexual exploitation and abuse!!
In many such cases in India, an investigation is taken up nominally, the teacher maybe dismissed or sometimes let go with a strong warning. On the other hand, in many countries, a teacher could get a lifer for these kind of crimes!

Wake up India! Its not enough to just provide the resources to educate the future generations. We have made mistakes! But let's for once stand up and say "Enough!" Let's clean up the system. Unless we address the roots of our problems, we can never create better future generation. Let's do it for them!

- Sivani