Managing Education outreach to minimize aberrations in society
Education is meant to make any human being a refined person. It will teach him the right moral and ethical values. Yet, aberrations happen in our society, and it is due to inadequate education and health; also relationships, as also unhappy home environments. Educational outreach can at least minimize some of these aberrations. This article is an attempt in this direction.
Introduction
Just a few days ago, a very horrible kind of aberration was reported near Tiruchirapalli, the fourth largest city of Tamil Nadu. A school teacher, aged 26, eloped with her own 10th standard student. The parents of the boy lodged a police complaint and the police traced the missing persons to a friend's house of the teacher in a neighboring town. The teacher declared that she had married the boy in a temple. However, since the boy is not even 18 years old, the lady teacher was arrested and the boy has been sent to a reformative home.
Such aberrations are a blot on society. We need to quickly address them in one way or the other. To do this, we need to take education far beyond the classrooms and the outreach needs to involve various stake-holders of the immediate society. To this end, the suggested steps are a)Formation of committees at district level to address society problems b) Identifying deviant behavior through continuous communication c) Engaging local police to address youth very regularly d) Encouraging constructive social work to minimize deviant behavior and e) Utilizing counseling services available in colleges and NGOs. Formation of committees at district level to address society problems
An idle mind is a devil's workshop. When youth are idle, they will resort to unethical means to survive. There is an urgent need to address these needs for skilling the youth to enable them to lead far better lives. This can be done by forming committees of sociologists, retired judges, bankers, educationists and so on. When such committees start identifying the local problems of youth, far better results can flow. It is only a matter of coordination and communication. This has to become a big and continuous process. When such committees of respectable people are involved, the constructive cooperation of the society can also be easily obtained. These committees should be formed at every major town of every district of India. Honorary work of these professionals is quite easily possible, as there are too many people ever willing to chip in with their expertise. Identifying deviant behavior through communication
The aforesaid committees should also regularly visit local schools and colleges and offer all their support. For example, if some career planning solutions are put in place, the youth will be more focused and will not deviate from the ethical path. Even if some slight deviations in behavior is noticed among students, or some teachers are getting close to students or teachers of the opposite sex and there is a danger of deviant behavior, such aberrations should be immediately addressed. This sort of immediate action can help a great deal in minimizing deviant behavior. If the aforesaid committees regularly address the students, they will instill some moral fear in the students and teachers and this initiative can indeed help the cause.Engaging local police to address youth regularly
The local police also have a big role to play. When they visit the schools and colleges very regularly, there will be a big moral fear that the long arm of the law will catch up, if any deviant behavior is noticed. This will positively prevent any aberration and will enable the peaceful atmosphere to prevail in society. This step is very essential, as it will mean that educational outreach also involves the custodians of law. In fact, the parents will be very keen on such initiatives and this is very much needed in today's conditions, as the school and college boys are often misled by the television serials and the movies. There is a massive influence of the social media as well.Encouraging constructive social work to minimize deviant behavior
Some years ago, several thousands of youth, including school children, physically involved themselves in saving the ukkadam lake, in the heart of Coimbatore city. Some real estate sharks wanted to encroach it but through judicial intervention, major NGOs not only saved it, but also gave a call for the public to save it. It was also supported by the famous Tamil actor, Hamal Hassan. Today, such initiatives are very much called for. When the human mind is very much focused, the results will be good. Constructive social work is on one such possibility. The scope of doing this on a regular basis is very huge and the trick is to keep on multiplying the scope of such work. Obviously, schools and colleges need to get involved in a massive way. Now that the schools and colleges have reopened, it is much easier to get this done very fast. Utilizing counseling services available in colleges and NGOs
There are many colleges, including medical and engineering colleges, that have trained counselors. The urgent imperative to check or minimize deviant behavior and the various aberrations is to increase the scope of such counseling services and make them as comprehensive as possible. In fact, the more this is done, lesser are the deviant behaviors and this is a fact of life. Hence, let there be very big attempts to enlist such support.Conclusion
The entire Indian society is in a transition phase. Modernization and the use of modern electronic gadgets have many positive impacts. However, there is also the danger of misuse of such devices and the negative influence of social media as well. These are some problems that go on to create aberrations in society and crimes against women. Hopefully, the steps outlined above will minimize the magnitude of the problems to a great extent.
A teacher who is supposed to be the mentor of his/her student forgets his/her role and behaves in a completely different way. This incident tells us how ineffective is our system. Education should bring in not only knowledge but also should make us know the importance of values.
These days our education system is to just get certificates and marks. It never speaks about the importance of values and virtues in life. If a teacher who underwent a teacher training program is not understanding the relationship a teacher should maintain with his/ her student, what is the use of that training? We have to have serious thinking. When a child is at his/her early age, their parents and grandparents should teach them the importance of values in life. But this is not happening these days and no attention is paid to this and the full concentration is on providing facilities to their kids is the main goal. This attitude should change,
I feel such persons who commit serious mistakes should be punished severely so that the other people in the same line will start thinking and there are chances for a change in their mindset.
The actions mentioned by the author may show good results. But how practical these suggestions are is the question.