Student-Participation

R. PANDURANGA RAO
Mrs. A. V. N. College, Visakhapatnam

The consensus in the country and abroad seems to be in favour of active student-participation in academic and administrative matters of the universities and colleges. The implication is that the existing bodies, as they are constituted at present, have failed to deliver the goods to the satisfaction of the student community and that student-representation on the various academic and administrative bodies is the only remedy for the present ills of the educational scene of India. All the student unrest is attributed, indirectly at least, to the absence of student-representatives on the various bodies who would have safeguarded their interests.

Whatever the reason, students have become a powerful body with infinite potentialities. The Politicians use them for their own ends and the teachers and administrators feel embarrassed. So when a demand for student representation was made by that formidable body, all the machinery in charge of education seems to have conceded it with alacrity.

While I agree that the education of the country is in a sad mess and that teaching standards are none too high and that the employment opportunities of even science and professional graduates are woefully inadequate, I honestly feel that student-representation, however fashionable and lofty it may seem, is not the solution to our problem.

Student-Representation is certainly desirable in the following spheres:
Extra-curricular Activites:

(a) Student-unions, (b) Dramatic Associations or Fine Arts Societies, (c) Social Service Leagues, (d) Audio-visual Education, (e) Magazine Committees, (f) Sports and Athletics, (g) Library Committees, (h) N. C. C., (i) Hostel Committees, (j) Scouts and Guides,
f) Youth Leagues, (l) Home Guards, (m) Territorial Army, (n) N.S.C.

These bodies provide the healthiest opportunity for the expression and development of the student’s personality. Studies equip the student’s mind and these other activities prepare him for the challenges of life. The teachers may function on some of these bodies and discreetly offer such advice and guidance as may be required without curtailing the freedom of students or weakening their leadership. Student-teacher relationship is thus established and they can work in creative harmony. Even in academic matters students may be consulted and any useful suggestions made by them may be incorporated in the decisions to be reached by appropriate competent bodies.

            Student welfare Councils may be formed in all universities and colleges and senior popular teachers may be taken as Deans to look after the welfare of all students and make them feel that they are privileged members of clean, salubrious, stimulating and inspiring citadels orlearning. Teachers dedicated to their profession; and commanding respect as teachers and genuine well-wishers of the student community should be chosen for such portfolios.

But to give the students a representation on academic and administrative bodies is to whittle down the standards still further. If the decisions of the elderly and experienced teachers and others are disappointing, is it not illogical to assume that the addition of immature minds to the decision making bodies will contribute to their strength? We the custodians of student-welfare are yielding to pressure from a strong but immature community of youth and thus leaving the future of our youth to the tyranny of chance. Young impressionable minds will drift into politics and bid good bye to studies. Capturing seats of power in the educational sphere, they may next demand representation in the Legislative Assemblies and Lok Sabha and the Cabinet. Their criticism of syllabi, text-books, examinations, administration, etc., may sound pleasant and harmless to others but it implies disrespect to their preceptors and judgment (often adverse) of their intellectual superiors and the professed shapers of their mind. If this trend is encouraged there may come a time when interested politicians will direct a tirade against devoted teachers, hound them out of colleges and universities and convert shrines of learning into political amphi-theatres. The disastrous indoctrination of the student population of Hyderabad and the ruining of their careers in the Telangana agitation should serve as a warning to the elders against misplaced liberality and ill-conceived representation.

What the majority of students really heed is not political and such other recognition but sound education, training for leadership and extensive employment opportunities throughout the country. No Bharatiya Vidyardhi or graduate should come out of his Alma Mater mentally and morally starved or vocationally despondent. While getting his due reward and recognition in life he should learn to be patriotic enough to give his best to the nation in any capacity. To wean him from his studies and admit him prematurely into politics is to unfit him for the challenges of life.

All the same the demand of the student-community should awaken teachers as well as administrators from their torpor and lash them into introspection. After twenty-two years of independence we are unable to assert without fear of contradiction that our educational institutions are first-rate and our teachers are competent and devoted to their profession, our educational pattern is best suited to our country’s needs, and our graduates compare favourably with their counterparts in the independent, advanced countries.

The crying need of the hour is therefore a high-power commission to go into the working of our universities and colleges and suggest drastic changes in every aspect of our educational scene today. Let us plan educational development carefully and make sure that we have the requisite number of qualified teachers, good buildings and laboratories before we start colleges and universities. The periodical evaluation of the work of teachers at all levels is to be undertaken by educationists of repute, not by immature students who can easily be misguided. Politicians should leave the job of educational reform to reputed educationists and allow them to educate the nation for the next twenty years without any interference from the Government. The educationists too should take up the challenge, shed their apathy and come forward to discharge their duty to the nation.