Schools urgently need thorough schooling

May 23: A student is like a prisoner in Tihar jail. To the school, he is simply a roll number; to his parents just marks; to the college ...

May 23: A student is like a prisoner in Tihar jail. To the school, he is simply a roll number; to his parents just marks; to the college a percentage. Thirty years later, this SSC success story will dangle from a Virar fast, wondering why his 92 per cent was such a big deal. He still has to rub shoulders with high-school dropouts and the rest of the janta.

The outpouring comes from 10-year-old Arjun, who articulates the feelings of lakhs of students, chained to a system they say is debilitating. Arjun, along scores of other school children, was venting his frustration to his peers, educators and government authorities at a recent discussion organised by a students8217; group. Since a year and a half, a core group of four college students has been trying to make education the talking point among persons tied to the system in any way. Using the empathy factor, Aditya Bhat 21, Aditi Samant 17, Rashmi Shrivastav 22 and Hrishita Sirja 20 have found the children they spoke to were surprisingly spontaneous andupfront. For the present, change is still second on their agenda.

8220;Till date, we have held over 80 sessions spanning as many issues,8221; says Aditya, an engineering student. The discussions usually take place at Nehru Centre, Worli, since its chief executive, Satish Sahney, and lawyer Kirti Samant have played a pivotal role, he says. Core group members visit schools for permission to meet students on the premises. Discussions, attended by the school children, experts as well as government officials, are also held at Nehru Centre. 8220;Since we ourselves are students, school children are comfortable about speaking to us,8221; Aditya explains.

Victimisation is the refrain, the core group found after talking with students from over 40 schools, most of them English-medium and affiliated to the Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. Some are also affiliated to Indian Council for Secondary Education ICSE, Samant observes.

Students say their teachers berate them under varying circumstances.

Throwingdusters and chalk is common as is caning and slapping the children, says Hrishita, a student of architecture.

Physical abuse is more common in boys8217; schools while verbal expletives show gender equality. 8220;Teachers often address kids as good for nothing, duffer, dumbo, etc,8221; she adds.

Another form of victimisation is arm-twisting by teachers, who often coerce students to attend their coaching classes. This takes place in ICSE schools, with an ideal teacher-student ratio of 1:20, as well as SSC schools with a corresponding 1:60 ratio, says Aditi, who has just taken the HSC exams.

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8220;Teachers even tell students they will risk failure if they do not cooperate,8221; she reveals.

Students, usually those from Stds VIII and IX, say their teachers do not teach properly, come late to class and do not finish the syllabus on time. Parental pressure, especially for SSC students, complements the victimisation, students say. If counsellors could make a difference, in most schools they don8217;t exist. As for counsellors,students usually avoid them as they feel the latter would breach their confidence to the school authorities.

Students have also given the Parent-Teacher Association, made obligatory by the government last year, the thumbs-down. Only selective parents are called8230; it has turned into a fund-raising activity8230; and a tea party for parents, were some of the epithets they used. They say surprise visits by education inspectors could inject a semblance of dignity back into education, students feel.