Empower teachers to save the young generation

Violence, Sex and Drugs. What a deadly combination that has started to take over campuses. The new liberal thoughts which promote complete freedom to live the way one wants, inefficiency of religious leaders/groups, unhealthy competition between political parties aiming to ensure authority and control over others through any dirty means and propagation against religious values especially from the Covid time onwards are a few key factors for the anarchy that we have started to see in campuses. But as a person who has been working with Schools for around 15 years both in Kerala and UAE, I would like to put forward a few other important factors that have significantly contributed to the present situation.

1. Weakened Family Systems:

From a joint family, the society moved towards nuclear family and now it is not even a nuclear family. It is all me and my mobile phone. It is all about my dreams, my comforts, my moods and my ego satisfaction. There is no other person.

It is also observed that children with behavioral issues and special needs are found more in families where both the parents are working or where the parents spend less time with their children in early years.

2. Change in the Attitude of Parents:

· My child is always right. There is an increase in the percentage of parents who blindly trust their own children and criticize or reject teachers or elders who try to correct them. Inability to accept the mistakes of their own children and instead they try to blame teachers or school. There is no introspection. "I am always right, you are always wrong". I was against installing CCTV cameras inside classrooms as I felt it will not have a positive impact on the morale of the teachers. But now I feel that CCTV should be installed in all classrooms for proper monitoring.

· Parents are happy when their child performs well and they are unhappy when they are not. It's natural. But one shouldn't rate or evaluate a teacher or a school based on the performance of one child. Every individual is unique and every child has different talents, interests and intelligence. Teachers and parents' role is to identify this and work together.

· Some of the parents try to justify the mistakes of their children and get into arguments or blame the teacher or school in front of the child. How can we expect the child to respect and value a teacher in such a situation? If a child misbehaves at home or with parents it's the teacher's responsibility. If a child misbehaves in school, it's again the responsibility of the teacher. We should not forget that a child's initial 5 years decides their character and personality and the home environment plays a key role here.

· There are a few parents who fail to make the right investments for the child - Time being the most important and valuable investment that a parent can invest in their child. We parents are passive listeners when children deserve an empathetic listening. We parents should spend on creating a learning environment at home, should provide resources for learning, and should pay fees on time. But we are conspicuous in spending for marriages, clothing, constructing large houses, purchasing vehicles, providing pocket money for children to throw money for movies, touring, partying with friends, exploring hotels and foods all over etc..

3. Disempowerment of Teachers

New guidelines, norms and policies can be formed to provide a balanced and effective space for teachers to correct the behavior and character of students without any fear. The loopholes, if any, in the existing policies need to be identified to make the students more responsible & kind. It is sad to know that most of the times these laws are misused against teachers as per the recent studies. I have seen parents who proudly say that “my son is gunda (goon) in school”. There are parents who advise children not to come back home beaten. Instead retaliate and come.

There is a shift happening from student centered schooling to parent centered schooling. Here Schools have started competing to please and make parents happy.

Apart from the regular teaching workload, teachers have to satisfy parents by promptly responding to their whatsapp/email messages. It has now become their part of duty even if it is late night. This shift of focus from ensuring a happy learning environment for students to creating a school system ensuring prominent treatment and service for parents has badly affected the Schooling Culture. The relationship between teacher and a parent should never be that of Customer/Consumer and a service provider.

Following measures can be considered by all authorities to bring a change in this situation:

1. Review existing policies and make necessary amendments to build more balanced laws and rules that will increase the morale and value of teachers.
2. Adopt strategies and plans to educate parents to address the new challenges in the society and equip them.
3. Integrate courses on farming, coding, responsible use of technology & social media, specific social responsibility building projects, ethics & values etc into school curriculum. It’s time to review and redefine the curriculum.
4. Take steps to bring out the teacher in every parent and parent in every teacher.
5. Promote Sports, Arts and Games in Schools as it is a positive deviation from all kinds of addictions and a strong learning exposure helping students to understand team spirit, working together which further ensures physical and emotional wellbeing.
6. Rebuild family values, trust in family, neighborhoods and cultivate culture of care, share and kindness among members.
7. Both parents and teachers need to find time to listen to the children without being judgemental.
8. Promote positive aspects of our children. Let the parents grow to make their children grow. As parents we do not have the moral right to criticize our children when we are not ready to grow and when we are not ready to set examples.
9. Students should be taught to accept failures, learn from mistakes and control intolerance
10. Very importantly authorities should stop blaming games & come with a strong action plan to curb use and distribution of drugs. And this can be easily done with the support of all stakeholders if there is a will.