Principal Murdered – Principles Buried!!

Few days back the principal of a private engineering college in southern Tamil Nadu was brutally murdered by three of his own students on the college campus while many students and staff were witnessing the horror in panic. The three students had created series of problems that led to the suspension of one of them for few days and the disciplinary action provoked them to wreak vengeance on the slain college head.

The incident which is beyond our imagination has shattered the entire teachers’ community and definitely this is a symptom of the presence of a deadly disease in our present society. Could a principal / teacher ever imagine that one of his students would stab him in stomach and other two would fatally attack with long knives on his head? Unfortunately, the culturally degraded society has made it realistic. 

The murder has ignited a serious of debate among academicians, students and the public. While many people have superficially analysed the case and engaged in blame game, academicians and authorities have cautiously used diplomatic words so that no one would feel offended. It appears that the academicians and intellectuals are not willing to open the Can of Worms in the public. Members of the All India Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisations said such instances are mainly due to academic stress in the students and the management pressure on professors to perform, especially in the private institutions. The Vice President of AIFUCTO said, “Mentoring must be continuous, and not ritualistic to oblige an internal examination requirement. The government should try to evolve an institutional mechanism that provides necessary emotional and pharmacological support to stressed-out learners and middle-aged professors working in challenging circumstances but facing uncertain future.”

I believe that the ‘academic stress’ on the students and the ‘pressure on professors to perform’ should have started from the day the private engineering colleges were allowed to mushroom in our country. Parents want their children to study the most demanded courses even though their children may NOT have the aptitude to study the particular course. The greedy private colleges happily admit these blind folded youngsters solely for money and force the underpaid young professors to bring miraculous results. All the managements need is 100 % result because that alone would ensure the successful running of their business. Unfortunately, many faculty members in the private institutions behave like slaves and seldom have liberty to express their views to the managements. So, they simply turn the heat on the students. This is the beginning of misunderstanding between teachers and students and the result is what we witness now.

It is a well known fact that many private engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu practice the innovative way of imposing unreasonable fines for each and every fault of students. Late arrival, not attending classes and internal exams, failing in Semester Exams etc are few examples that would attract invoking of the penal action of imposing heavy fines. Students from the well to do families may not have problems to comply with this order but the condition of students coming from the economically backward sections of the society is so pathetic. Their parents might have spent the entire savings at the time of admissions and in most cases the students might be continuing their studies on Bank Loans. One may not easily realise the plight of such families unless they witness it themselves.

The accused in the present murder case reported that the college authorities have been imposing fine of Rs.1000/-(one thousand) even for late arrival of 10 minutes, use to summon the parents over trivial matters and insult the students with abusive words in the presence of parents. Whatever it may be, no one could ever justify the gruesome act of the students. But at the same time we must admit that the highly qualified professors utterly failed to understand the psychology of today’s youth.         

A noted Tamil writer (Paamaran) has expressed critical views about the incident and I absolutely agree with his fearless views. Here is the extract of his opinion.

“Instant criticisms and punishing the accused in unfortunate incidents are like taking pain killers without treating the cause of the disease and would never bring permanent solutions to the problems. Today, most of the Educational Institutions are owned by Politicians and Liquid Barons who manage the organizations with the help of political, muscle and money powers. Parents, Students or anyone who raise their voice against these managements are threatened with dire consequences and are mostly suppressed. Those students who rise against the suppression ultimately become the victims of violence.

A section of the teaching faculty is also blamed for the fallout of the situation. Today’s teacher was yesterday’s student and also comes from the same degraded society. He is also influenced by the cultural degradedness of the society and we could not expect sudden behavioural changes once he becomes a teacher.

Today’s education system moulds the younger generation as revenue earning machines and fails to change them into Human Resources with Character and Social Concern. The behaviour of vengeance dominates today’s educated class and the entire society is responsible for the violent nature of the misguided youth. Therefore, in order to bring changes in the younger generation, we must begin changes from the grass root level of the society.”

Even though the Naga Society suffers from the shortcomings of armed conflicts, I would honestly say that teachers serving in Nagaland have been highly regarded by the society and the students. In the days of globalization, we should learn lessons from the incidents happening in our neighbourhood and correct ourselves before our society gets infected by the deadly disease. I sincerely pray that let Nagaland continue to be an example to the proverb ‘Parents are Teachers at Home and Teachers are Parents at School’.