Life Beyond Grades

This is about a very critical issue,a issue of life and death. I speak about none other than testing times where one locks himself in a concentration camp(room).Of course it is about board exams.

The class XII results which apparently are the `single' source of determining the future of 17 year olds across the country seem to be significant enough to drive those very 17 year olds to another phenomenon, that of suicide.

The act of suicide and its causes do not remain a case for the discipline of psychology anymore. Each year class XII students killing themselves a day or two after the results are announced is an unhealthy social phenomenon and not just a stray case of individual deviant behaviour. This is a serious situation that calls for sincere attention.

These suicide cases cannot be treated as aberrations where each successive year on an average 10 students take their own lives because of `depression' due to results. That is a naïve and to a certain extent insensitive approach to the problem. The causes are much more deep rooted than just the young person's frame of mind on the day of the results. Suicide in this case is not an act of impulse.

Pressures

We have to pay attention to the framework within which the development both academic and personal of the young people (who have the fortune of attending high school) is taking place in our society. What are the kind of pressures that we are imposing both on our young and ourselves? As parents, is it our own sense of lack of accomplishment in certain cases or the desire to see our success level being taken forward by the offspring?

As educators, at what cost do we want to see our institution top the `merit-list'? We have to realise that schools merely do not possess marks fetching machines but potential painters, artists, actors, doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, development workers and most important normal human beings who require careful grooming. Their potential in no way can be judged by one final examination that is taken at the end of the school career.

Without going into the details of what is lacking in our entire education system, it is more practical to suggest what can be done by all of us whether we are educators, parents or simply just the members of civil society to put an end to this macabre phenomenon of members of our future generation ending their lives for a few digits written on paper.

Corrective steps

To begin with, a student cannot suddenly fail in the class XII board exams. He or she has to show a trend of not doing too well in the preceding school exams as well. That is the stage where corrective measures should be taken right away. We are prompt in bestowing awards on our toppers, extra-curricular activists and ace sports-people. But we need to show the same promptness in paying attention to the kind of problems that students consistently not doing well face. It is easy to brand a `problem child' but the onus falls on the adults to find out the cause of the so-called problem and make an effort to improve the situation.

Similarly schools have to realise that their prestige does not depend upon a few students getting 90 per cent (which by the way is fast becoming the new 60s) but on how many of their students have benefited by their overall training and, more importantly, enjoyed school.

Parents/guardians have to be a part of the entire schooling process of the child. This means more than just being part of the parents-teachers meets. Grades should not determine the intelligence level of a student. Nobody deserves to be demoralised just because of something as transient as grades.

What must be explored are other talents that each child possesses. Most importantly children should be encouraged to do diverse reading. This makes them think out of the box, propels initiative and enhances perspective. Such a way of life is sure to produce a personality that knows a world beyond just marks and grades, someone who is aware of his or her other strong points and is confident of taking on life irrespective of the score in Physics or Political Science or Business Studies.

I write as no authority but simply as a concerned member of civil society. I might not know personally the families that have lost their children but their grief is deeply felt by me. We all need to take responsibility to understand and always remember that a happy and meaningful human life is much more valuable than a certificate or a few numbers. 

Health In Your Hands

Waterborne diseases pose one of the biggest challenges for public health in India. Diarrhoeal diseases are the largest killers of children in India. India has more than 10 million officially reported cases of diarrhoea per annum, but the actual number must be many times higher. Given the rather poor quality of public water supply and sanitation services in India, one of the most cost-effective interventions for improving community health would be promotion of domestic and personal hygiene and management of drinking water quality at home. In this context, the Government of Kerala's proposed programme promoting the need for handwashing with soap at key health moments is a welcome and much needed addition to the overall set of public health priorities.

In the recent past, there has been a growing acceptance of the fact that providing safe drinking water and adequate sanitation are key government social priorities that will help address the waterborne disease problem.

I believe that hygiene education programmes like those on handwashing with soap offer not just large health gains, but instant health gains as well. This is because there is no need for the government to make large time and money investments in creating programme implementation capacity. The public health benefits of this programme will accrue as soon as the poor change their hygiene habits at critical health moments like feeding and cleaning up children, and before taking meals.

Obscenity In Adds

 MODERN-DAY posters serve the purpose of not only advertising the film but also showing-off various masterly shot views of the heroine's exposed bust. The ad-makers exhibit a sense of competition in picturing the next-to-nude heroine against a fully clad hero, so as to lure the common man to the theatres. Be it is a box-office hit or flop, the quest in turning posters as feast of the eyes is rather wild.

Earlier, obscene pictures were a mark of `A' films (meant for above 18 years) but cinemas of the hour have started to inchoate. I believe that the impact of foreign film ads has led the desis too to follow suit. Posters are stuck at places like tea-stalls, snack outlets where people normally hang around. Electrifying posters will surely catch one's eye and he would definitely have an incessant desire to watch the film too, thus serving the purpose of why the ad was stuck in the first place.

Imagine the impact this could have on small kids who get to see these vulgar posters while on their way to school or shopping. Are we moulding the future citizens of India into a bunch of good-for-nothing sloths? Where do these kids get to do away with the doubts that arise in their minds? Won't they unknowingly be taking the wrong path? The ad-world is bothered with just the money that is minted out. This is a serious social issue wherein, in order to publicise films with practically no story-content, vulgarity is being used in an uncontrollable manner.

Why don't such films that sport an actress in skimpy clothes flirting around come in the `A' category, since when they are branded as `U' it is taken for granted that publicising any sort of obscenity is allowable?

India is a land that holds high the virtues of both sexes. Society looks up to a woman of substance and not to one that exposes all that has to be hidden. The real intention why God created man and woman per se will be lost if things proceed in this undesirable fashion. 

Environmental health: an appraisal

Having taken note of the disturbing trend in the management of environmental issues, I considered it appropriate to make an appraisal of the situation in terms of human health. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has observed that over 70 per cent of all human ailments are influenced by environmental deterioration. The industries are the sources of hazardous emissions and effluents. The use of chemical insecticides and pesticides in agro management also leaves dangerous residues. Transport, whether land borne, water borne or airborne, does contaminate the environment. Public health infrastructure — sewage, garbage, drainage — has a detrimental impact on the environment. The food we eat, the water we drink and the house we live in are not free from contaminants, affecting our health, and causing a spectrum of ailments.

What is at stake is the way the environmental issues are handled. For over three decades, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been deliberating on the environmental issues through a spectrum of expert groups and bodies from which "Sustainable Development" concept has emerged as a viable approach, in achieving an equitable complementarity in environment and development, by way of evolving mechanisms for checks and balances, in both ecology and economy, with total regard for stable livelihood opportunities and betterment of health.

I do believe that people's participation is inevitable in the successful conduct of both development and environment. But the tendency of people's groups and individuals is to highlight the environmental hazards leading to confusion, disinformation and panic of a tragedy facing the community. In fact, a totally scientific issue with achievable solutions is converted into a social issue or even a political issue. The net result is the cessation of the development process, or even closure of highly profitable establishments, disturbing the livelihood of the people.

In almost all agitational methods as instruments in highlighting an environmental issue, emotions of the community are triggered without any rationale, and without taking into account the degree of disruption to developmental activity and the means of livelihood of the people. It is therefore imperative that an agenda of sustainable development deserved to be put in place, powered by science and technology as the tools for bringing about complementarity in environment and development. In such a scheme, issues raised by the people may be addressed suitably through appropriate alternatives like detoxification of toxic effluent resources, quality certification of products and measures to reduce risks and betterment of safety systems.

In order to achieve the above desirable level of management, there is need to evolve policies, laws and other statutory measures, supported also by credible institutional expertise providing scientific inputs. In order to coordinate, manage and control the successful implementation of sustainable development alternative as a viable solution to environmental issues, a statutory body namely "Environmental Monitoring and Management Authority" be constituted with provision for accommodating people drawn from Academia, Technology, Management, and Government together with people's representatives.

Changing face of Education System

 AS WE enter the new millennium, the world economy is experiencing an unprecedented change. New developments in science and technology, competition, media revolution and internationalisation are revolutionising the education sector. We are witnessing paradigm shift in higher education, from `national' to `global education,' from `state controlled' to an `open market economy,' from `general education' to an `educational system driven by market forces,' from `one time education for a few' to `life long education for all,' from `teachers centred' to `learner centred' education. These changes make new demands and pose fresh challenges to our established education systems and practices and, therefore, a time has come when we have to re-appraise their role and functions, the present administrative structure/ finances of university management.

In India, over the last several years there has been a phenomenal increase in enrolment. The number of universities increased from 28 in 1950-51 to 224 in 1996 and colleges from 695 to 8,613 during the same period. The student population increased from 2.5 lakhs to over 60 lakhs while the number of teachers increased from 12,000 to 3,00,000. We have now 238 universities, over 11,000 colleges and 3,42,000 teachers with a total student enrolment of nearly 7.5 million. It may however be pointed out that while India has the second largest system of higher education, next only to the U.S., the total number of students hardly represent 6 per cent of the relevant age group aged between 18 and 23 years, which is much below the average of developed countries (47 per cent) and less than that of developing countries which is 7 per cent.

When we look at university finances around the country, we see a familiar landscape. Bulk of the funds received by both Central and State universities is from public sources. Private contribution to education in the form of donations and endowments, which were the hallmarks of the pre-Independence period, has dwindled. The internal resources of universities have been dwindling as a percentage of their annual maintenance expenditure. Investment in higher education is far too inadequate. Cost recovery from students has not kept pace with the requirements. Most of the expenditure is on salaries, especially on the non-teaching staff, which in some universities number five times the teaching staff. Salaries and perquisites have grown precipitously with no corresponding reduction in numbers.

Faced with financial crises coupled with competing demands for funds for different sectors of the economy, the State and Central Governments have not been able to allocate adequate resources for higher education.

Private sector participation

Keeping in view the increasing demand for higher education and inability of the state-funded universities and colleges to cope with the pressure effectively, the participation of private sector should be encouraged. It would at least take care of those segments of the demand for higher education that can afford to pay the prices charged by the private institutions. However, while doing so utmost care must be taken to ensure that the same does not lead to rampant commercialization of higher education. To this end, necessary control and monitoring mechanism must be developed to ensure quality education at reasonable cost. For many pro gramme of studies, there is a demand for seats by foreign students who can pay in dollars. The universities may create supernumerary seats up to 20 per cent to enrol foreign students, and students sponsored by NRIs on the basis of full cost fees. Universities should also open their campuses abroad or tie up with universities and institutions to offer their programmes for mobilizing funds and providing education in the countries where such education is in demand. Similarly, universities may engage in consultancy services and patents should be taken out for the discoveries and innovations made by the faculty and students. Universities may also rent out their premises during vacations/after class hours on commercial and semi-commercial basis. After meeting the project cost, maintenance and service cost, the balance could be put into the university corpus fund. The UGC may consider a matching grant to the tune of amounts saved in revenue/current expenditure so that the corpus fund of the university is built up over a period of time and the interest earned thereon could be used in the long run for maintenance and development of universities.

Other sources of income will also have to be boosted up by encouraging private donations and endowments, strengthening community participation and establishing industry-university linkages from which both the universities and the industrial sector benefit. The industry should recognise that the skilled qualified manpower it requires can be produced by universities only if the universities are well endowed with finance.

In the preceding paras I have tried to suggest the various ways through which the university finances could be brought back on rails. However, such efforts must not be constructed as a justification for gradual withdrawal of state support to higher education. In fact the government is keen that the budgetary allocation for higher education, both plan and non-plan, is increased substantially. Perhaps the resources raised through disinvestments in public enterprises, as a consequence of economic liberalisation and structural adjustment, can be diverted to infrastructure and human resource development.

Attrocities Against Women

 "Women was the first human being that tasted bondage. Woman was a slave before the slave existed," said August Bebel in his text on `women under socialism.' It is indeed sad that women are still under bondage, unable to assert their rights, silently putting up with all possible atrocities. Domestic and sexual violence against woman is prevalent all over the world, though a major chunk of the news remains under reported. It is estimated that two thirds of wives in developing countries are physically battered, while in India, it is claimed that there are about 9,000 dowry deaths every year. There exist many more such shocking indicators of brutal violence against women. All said and done, violence against women is never perceived as violation of human rights!

During a recent research study that was conducted to assess the social modernisation level of girl students belonging to XI standard, it was surprising to note that, on an average, 65 per cent of the respondents simply approved of `wife beating,' as they felt it was a common phenomenon happening in every other home! The revelation about the attitude of girls towards violence, though alarming, is thought provoking. It sends across vital messages about the quality of socialisation process they have been through all along. While media, educational institutions, family, and peer groups are expected to play a prominent role in strengthening and shaping the personality of the growing child, it is disheartening to note that these agents of socialisation have been biased in their approach. Girls are, right from their tender age, conditioned to accept stereotyped gender roles and duties that continuously reinforce their `inferior' status. It is not surprising that girls invariably grow up accepting gender discrimination, thus becoming passive recipients of unfair and unjust acts practised against them.

It's time to act... and educational institutions should take the lead by framing curriculum to include subjects on Human Rights with special focus on women's rights. Teachers should be trained to handle these subjects through various programmes, activities, workshops, street plays, seminars, etc., so as to inculcate values in the girl child to maintain her individuality, assert her right and more importantly not fall into the trap of accepting the culturally programmed gender roles. 

Laugh and The World Laughs Too

Remember the movie 'Patch Adams' where Robin Williams used laughter as a healing therapy, in reality that works. Laughter can reduce your stress levels, and has a positive impact on your body, both physically and mentally.

This how laughter clubs were formed in India and around the world, where people - senior citizens, housewives, corporates etc - get together in a garden or any open space and laugh away to glory.

It is believed that while laughing the human brain secretes the 'feel good' hormone endorphine and there by reducing the levels of cortisol - a stress hormone. Laughter also increases oxygen supply in the body, as a result you are hale and hearty.

Why should you laugh everyday?

• It strengthens your immune system
• Increases bloody supply to the face, so your skin glows
• Good for the heart, and controls blood pressure
• Increases oxygen supply, that's good for the system
• It will reduce depression and anxiety in your life

Laugh and the world laughs with you. There should be laugh breaks in office, it would certainly liven up the atmosphere.

Gladiator

Gladiator is the kind of movie upon which Hollywood once built its reputation but rarely produces anymore: the spectacle. Filled with larger-than-life characters, gorgeous scenery, impressive set design, and epic storytelling, Gladiator is designed not just to entertain, but to enthrall. It draws audiences in and immerses them in a reality that is not their own. A boisterous reaction is expected every time the protagonist defies the odds and wins a conflict, or changes the tide of battle in his favor. This is filmmaking on a grand scale.

Gladiator is set in 180 AD, and uses actual historical personages and events for background. The events that transpire in the film are largely fictional, but they blend in well with the known facts. The Roman Empire is in full blossom, having survived the excesses of one corrupt emperor after the next. The latest Caesar, Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), is a scholar who has taken to the battlefield to repel a barbarian threat from Germania. To that end, he has invaded, relying upon the leadership and valor of his best general, Maximus (Russell Crowe), to win the day. 

Maximus does not disappoint, and the Emperor privately decides to name him a his successor - a decision that does not sit well with Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), Marcus' son. In a fit of rage and grief, he kills his father, then has Maximus taken away to be executed. The general, however, escapes death, slaying his would-be killers, then races home to protect his wife and son. But he is too late - by the time he arrives, they are both dead, and he is soon taken prisoner by slave-traders. Along with his new friend Juba (Djimon Hounsou), he is bought by Proximo (Oliver Reed), an owner and trainer of Gladiators. Recognizing Maximus' potential, Proximo grooms him for a trip to Rome's Coliseum.

Like many of the great Hollywood historical epics, Gladiator is the story of the triumph of a heroic figure over seemingly-insurmountable odds. In this case, he is a slave taking on the most powerful man in the world - the Emperor of Rome. The ending may be a unlikely (although, from Commodus' point-of-view, it could be a shrewd move if handled properly), but it is as exhilarating and satisfying.