De-schooling Tamil Nadu146;s education

The state boasts of several path-breaking education policies but its school students suffer excessively from stress

Three years ago, a 15-year-old class ten student hung himself from the ceiling after he was scolded and beaten by his teacher for not attending class on a day that happened to be his birthday. Some months back, a young girl rushed to a southern rural school, forgetting to wear ribbons in her hair. The girl was made to hang her shoes from her ears and walk around the school grounds. More recently, two months ago, a 13-year-old boy was kicked in the groin by the headmaster of his school for touching his motorbike.

This is a dark side to education in Tamil Nadu, a state hailed for its high literacy nearly 65 per cent, pro-active rural schools that have introduced Montessori tools, a long list of private professional colleges 248, with a sanctioned annual intake of 90,698, high pass percentages in schools, rankers even in corporation-run schools, and some progressive policies. But, the DMK government8217;s recent decision to dust a three-year-old committee report off the shelves and accept a recommendation for dropping Rule 51 which permitted teachers to beat students has triggered a heated debate on the ills of school system in the state.

The state boasts of several path-breaking policies. Among them is the high 69 per cent reservation policy for Backward, Most Backward, SCc/STs in educational institutions. Controversial as this is, it has been a blessing for many. In 1982 it was Tamil Nadu which showed the way on strengthening the nutritious free noon meal scheme in all government-run and aided schools. Free uniforms were also provided.

Continuing the schemes of the previous AIADMK regime, the DMK government supplies free textbooks for students of unaided schools recognised by the government, free bus passes for all students from class one to twelve throughout the state, and free bicycles to Plus One rural students. Besides filling up thousands of vacant teacher8217;s posts across the state and upgrading village schools, the government also allocates funds to identify a few hundred schools in 8216;educationally backward8217; districts, in which students scored below average pass percentage to give them special coaching after school hours.

The state invests heavily in education and in fact ranks the third highest in this respect. The outlay for school education in 2006-2007 was Rs 5,438.87 crore; for elementary education alone it was Rs 2,758 crore, for secondary education Rs 2,447 crore, and higher education, Rs 892 crore.

But the stress on studies, particularly in private schools in the state under pressure to churn out cent per cent high ranking students, a compulsion directly related to the economics of education appears to be the trigger for the current debate on education ethics. There are allegations that the school where one of the students committed suicide for being harassed for being absent for a day, holds classes from 7 am to 7 pm to rush through the higher secondary syllabus and put students through more internal examinations.

In meetings conducted by the Muthukishnan Committee, which recommended banning corporal punishment, several teachers in schools in southern districts insisted that there was no alternative to corporal punishment in order to make their students learn. Two weeks ago, a group of 8216;concerned citizens8217;, including leading academicians, lawyers, psychiatrists, parents and activists got together to form a committee to take up issues relating to students8217; rights. The issue that got the group together, raised by anxious parents unwilling to come out in the open was the tendency of schools to weed out low-ranking students in class ten. Some of the students left in the lurch even attempted suicide, they said.

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Unlike other states, there is a low focus on humanities and arts in Tamil Nadu8217;s schools with parental and social pressures compelling students to take up the much-in-demand 8216;Chemistry-Physics-Maths8217; combination necessary for engineering and medicine. As a Chennai principal complained, society is as much to be blamed as the school administration, as it looks down on students opting for arts or commerce. In fact, according to one disturbing statistic, only two of the 90 CBSE schools in the city offered humanities.

But even in Tamil Nadu, which has an unimpressive track record in activism, the cries are getting louder for affirmative action 8212; to change the system, de-stress students, and concentrate less on academics and more on general humanity within schools, especially among teachers and principals.