“Teacher community has become so materialistic today;

that they have forgotten their social responsibility”

My dear readers, though I have commenced my series on As to how to prevent adolescence Suicide in January this year but I am pained to hear that over six teenagers in India have committed suicide alone in last seven days, that is from the day of declarations of results of 10th and 12th Central Board of Secondary Examinations. After all why they should commit suicide is the real question to deal with?

In my all previous articles, I have deliberated on all the facets of stresses, responsibilities of various people parents, teachers and friends including exam-o-mania stress but while analyzing the death of teenagers on 30 May 2007, I find we are still lacking in identifying the true depth of feelings of dejection amongst teenagers after results. In my third series I have identified one of the reasons of irresponsible media who publish inaccurate examination results but there are numerous such factors which cause even an outstanding student to rethinks about his own performances. I have termed these challenges as Environmental Threats and Challenges:

One; Irresponsible and unaccountable Education Department. The first and the foremost factor in make my teenagers commit suicide due to exam-o-mania is the most irresponsible, unaccountable, negligent and narcissistic Educational Department officials generally all over the third world particularly in India and third world countries. The latest expose of evaluation of graduates and post graduates answer sheets by fifth standard people on paltry some of rupees five is an open shameful splotch on such department’s officials. Too hoot to future citizens and students; the country has yet again bestowed over 3000 thousand teachers with various awards. These people who have been appointed through various quota systems, red tapism, favoritism and nepotism lack the basic character of human sympathy and affection. “Teacher community has become so materialistic today; that they have forgotten their social responsibility”. As most of them were incompetent; but have been employed superseding hundreds of competent people, they feel no responsibility towards any one. Moreover, the corruption in these countries has further made such Pillars of National Character (PNC) blood thirsty tigers. They only work after under seeing the table greasing; and remain blind to the file lying over table. During my interaction with large number of educationists, teachers, I have observed the following major problems:

o Unpunctuality. I have observed in past twenty years of my life, rather I would say after late eighties in India, that none of the educational department officials arrive in office in time. Most of them remain out on one or the other pretext till noon, thus, making negligible contribution towards working hours for actual day official jobs. They also waste working hours for nearly an hour everyday before and after scheduled tea and lunch breaks. They never forget break timing but never remember office working hours. Six days a week has further paralyzed already chronically sick and crippled departmental official machinery.

· What you expect from such breed of officials? Under these circumstances these officials never check any result sheet of students but sign blindly like blinds on documents put-up for signatures by subordinates and colleagues who prepare, check and finalize the drafts, thereby, leaving large scope of error, which results in publishing wrong and false results. Any teenager who had high expectations when finds his result below expectation goes into depression, and thus he/she either commits suicide or goes into chronic hopelessness. Rather punishing such teachers, actually, most of these officials are regularly rewarded by the similar types of official as educationists. I leave it to the readers and judiciary of the countries to make such irresponsible official accountable and responsible for even loss of a teenager’s life.

o As most of such officials are promoted superseding numerous competent and efficient through quotas, red tapism or political lineage, they are seldom found competent, thus, further eroding the strong foundation of past and make nations PNC hallow.

o As most these officials; who have never saw a rupees five currency note in their childhood or teens or till they became adult and got the job, they have now begun getting rupees five hundred/thousand rupees notes in bribe. After bribe scandal exposed in Delhi tax department, I have observed that such people stoop morally so low; that they have left every thing to under table transactions, thereby, not only playing with the lives of teenagers but also with the future of a country’s generations and PNC.

Two; Careless, incompetent and corrupt Paper Evaluators. The readers would be surprised to know that a large number of cases have come to light especially in India where illiterate and fifth standard pass unemployed youths have been caught marking and evaluating the answer sheets of under graduates and graduates of Masters of Business Administration or higher degree courses in Meerut. What a shame for such an education systems where the people who are bestowed with numerous awards and honors such as Doctor of Literatures etc, have been found wanting in every field of responsibilities towards my teenagers, society and country. On 30 May 2007, a case of such blatant negligence of evaluation have come to light in Dehradun where miss Srishti Sharma, a class tenth student who has been a brilliant and extraordinary studious students and has never secured less than 90% marks till ninth, was declared failed by the Central Board of Secondary Education, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh in India.

More over agony of this system is such that these officials ward off their all responsibilities by typing a line beneath all correspondence, that error in result is not their responsibility. If teenage takes a drastic step and does something wrong, who is to be blamed for such lapses. Any how one corrupt protects other or you scratch my back and I Yours is the basic working environment in India and most of the third world countries. Though, there is some accountability Western countries but inept and corrupt judiciary in third world itself has made such people fearless. There is need to bring strong measures against such officials or else India and a few other third world countries are progressing towards a major civil war by mid 2040 AD.

Three; Negligent Mark Compilers. Another external environmental factor which is revealed after prolonged study that despite failures at both above levels the mark compilers are no better. In the name of outsourcing and warding off total responsibility of errors, all government education departments have begun to hire external agencies; who have nothing to do with anyone other than money. When such results are uploaded on the net or published in local newspaper, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CSBE) in India and similar in other countries, ward off their accountability by adding a line that “the Education Board (EB) is not responsible for errors”. These senseless officials would never realize that teenagers, who had worked so hard over the years, would be disheartened or can commit suicide under depression. It is infact a shame on country’s Education system. The EB Officials (EBO) rather than taking pride in publishing correct results, generally follow the irresponsible and nefarious design of Culpable Homicide of Teenagers (CHT). If my teenager who expected over 90% marks in her 10th board but has been declared failed by such EBO, what should my teenager do? Whom should parent hold accountable for CHT of their beloved’s life?

Fours; Reckless School Administrations. My teenager’s problem is further aggravated what I termed by Money Minting Schools (MMS). The administration of such schools not only lacks basic human courtesies but also exhibit “Too Hoot To You” (THTY) attitude. Scholl management rather mitigating parents and teenagers problems due to evaluation errors ward off their responsibilities from beginning itself. This shameful conduct is evident in most of the MMS management. The Western style of Education urge made third world countries worse victim of such MMS. There is a need for all the governments including UNICEF to intervene and save my teenagers life.

Parents must understand that if such irresponsible officials would have not been sitting at such place, you would not loose your beloved teenager. I would suggest to follow my concept of TECCO (Touch, Educate, Consult, Council and Organize) remedial measures who would lose their beloved due to faults of all the characters noted above;

A; Touch. I believe that there is no important work for any parent than that of their beloved teenager’s future or life. I suggest two to three days prior of declaration of such EB exam results, parents are requested to be in regular touch with your teenagers. Never break the physical contact or else, we would loose our teenager.

B; Educate. Once you have established unbreakable contact, now discuss the possibilities of result to educate and prepare your teenager to face the worse. It is possible that irresponsible EBO might have declared an outstanding student; who had never secured less than 90% in past, failed. These EBO can do such miracles to make sure that one more teenager and family becomes victim of their irresponsible and unaccountable conduct in a Nation. This actually had happened with my own daughter Srishti Sharma who has been declared by CBSE failed. A student of English Medium from childhood has been declared failed in English itself because what I believe that most likely her answer sheet have been evaluated by some illiterate or uneducated local language qualified teacher. It is a fact of life. She had undergone deep depression but my continuous interaction has been able to retrieve her confidence but how long a teenager can sustain humiliation of failure?

C; Consult. I suggest after parent has educated the result and its outcome, please consult your child after declarations of such EB miraculous results. Discuss and share every moment through consultation with your teenager so that he is not left alone to take any drastic step. I suggest that if mother is a house wife or part time worker, she must remain with her teenager twenty four hours of the day till you retrieve the situation.

D; Council. If your child has gone into deep depression and you are finding difficult to raise his/her spirit, I suggest taking the help of expert to bring the teenager out of depression. Remember, your Physical Presence repeat physical presence with your teenager at this moment is acting as a separator between what I termed is the thin “Line of Life and Death (LLD)”. I would say follow my rule Forget Everything, Save Teenager (FEST).

E; Organize. After bringing your teenager under normal behavior, please organize the other events involving your teenager to educate him about the remedial steps you have taken or taking. Ensure your child is also taken out of the depressed environment so that for a few days he gets a mental break from Monotonous Stressful Environment of Depression (MSED) at home school and around. Remember any time your child interacts with his/her colleagues he further suffers the attack of Trauma of Depression (TOD).

My dear readers, as you are aware that my mission of making current year, the Suicide Free Teenagers Year – 2007 (SFTY-007) has been marred with over twenty four recorded suicide of my teenagers, I believe all you would take the current issue up to UNESCO to save a teenager’s life. Request to contact som_kalpna@yahoo.com

Source by S Kalpna Sharma