Stopping mindless violence in College campuses
The newspapers of today, the 8th of Jan 2015, carry a horrible article of how a very young student was murdered in a inter-group clash in a Deemed University of Coimbatore city.
This is not the first instance of such violence. Nor will it just be the last too.
We all need to ponder why such horrible violence takes place and how we can put an end to such violence.
To get to the root cause of such violence is the most urgent priority.
One of the most important reasons for violence of any kind is the anger and frustration among students, more so, among Engineering students. They are a frustrated lot as they fear unemployment after their studies. Except for the branded colleges, most colleges produce students of dubious quality. The cost of education is also not at all cheap. The pent-up anger and frustration is one major cause.
The second major cause is the most horrible influence of the Tamil and Hindi movies, that really create heroes of students who indulge in violence. Such violence is also disastrously glorified in some movies. The hero is also shown as a person who indulges in such violence on student campuses. This leads to a situation where the young man thinks that violence is a solution for everything.
The third reason is the campus romance. More often than not, a single beautiful girl is the envy of several young men. Only one of them will normally have the chance of attracting the girl in an emotional relationship. This leads to violence, as they who are jilted and feel let down, do try to harm the man involved, by some hook or crook.
In certain instances, the students have also indulged in some sort of violence against the method of teaching, or the attitude of some teacher and so on.
While some of the above may be the root causes, still the deep minds of the students --- mostly male students -- can be read only by trained counselors. Such trained counselors can really make the students to wake up and stop violence of any kind.
Today, the need for trained counselors in each college, in now more vital, than ever before. The Managements of every college should never consider appointing a trained counselor, particularly a female counselor, a waste of money.
Professional counselors, have the superb ability of probing deep into the minds of young students. Even if they notice a small problem, they can effectively identify the root cause and then help the person to rectify the same. There are instances where such professional help has changed the lives of many a student, even if the student was not counseled at college.
By appointing a trained female counselor in the college, the college will be doing a great service -- they will .actually appoint someone in whom the boys will see a good philosopher, friend and guide. More often than not, the boys will really tend to obey such counselors, as they will find some motherly caring in them. It is also possible that the counselors will offer some good advise on even some personal problem, which if left unattended or cared for, could lead to violence.
MORAL INSTRUCTIONS
There are many universities and even autonomous colleges, where there is one compulsory class on moral instructions. This should be introduced at all levels, and in the professional engineering colleges too. It is futile to think that the engineering college students will not obey or understand what is being taught in such classes. There is a strong need to go back to our ancient culture, and bring out the values of tolerance, faith in God with a liberal dose of spirituality in it, and so on. These should be taught in a meaningful way, through some modern methods.
For example, the case of the Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, which was started by a Visionary, called Dr Venkatapathy, is now available in a video form. If anyone sees this video, he or she will realize that thee is so much to be done, and can be done, meaningfully. Alongside such examples, it is also essential that the colleges conduct regular workshops on things like the Value of Positive Thinking and so on. Such workshops can also bring about more caring for the students, which, in turn, can reduce violence.
TEACHERS AS CHANGE AGENTS
Many teachers, particularly those in tier 3 or tier 4 engineering colleges, are underpaid and overworked. They do not care for the welfare of the students and do not counsel them at all. They turn a blind eye to any violence. All this can be solved if and when the teachers are paid a little better salaries and are taken care of. The need for developmental programs by the staff of the better placed colleges needs to be really organized. Once these training programs are in place, the teachers will realize that they have a much larger role to play.
Teachers can be change agents and respected as such, if they are given some encouragement to mingle with the students, understand their problems and worries and counsel them to the maximum extent. These are days when the students are totally distracted by the external environment, particularly by the movies. However, it is futile to just turn a blind eye, pleading helplessness. Such an attitude will not help the students in any way.
So, the better placed colleges should view campus violence as a social problem and then organize some developmental programs where the role of teachers can be emphasized. These programs can be done for free or a very nominal fee.
NEED FOR MORE INDUSTRY-INSTITUTE LINK
If there are two hundred students studying the B Tech final year course in Information Technology, there is no reason why some small or medium sized or even big organization cannot be roped in, to sign an MOU with the college, enabling the students to do live projects in software development, under the guidance of experts from industry. Since the students are not going to be paid anything, it is cheap labor for the industry concerned. It is a great experience for the students. Their employ ability skills will be greatly enhanced. When such things happen, the chances for campus violence will become very less or nil.
The problem of campus violence is a real problem. It cannot be neglected anymore.
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