WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN?

In ancient times, it was a notion that the nurturing and training of a child is being taken care by the inherent nature of a child. Even today a majority of parents, consciously or unconsciously hold the view that as children grow older they automatically learn the principles and understand the way of living. Consequently, most of the parents pay attention only on providing food, shelter and necessities of life and ignore the training required by the child for its moral and ethical development. Then there is certain percentage of parents who place this responsibility on the schools. According to them the responsibility of all-round development and character building of a child is solely of the school. Many parents blame the school for any negative changes in the behaviour of the child. It may be true to certain extent for some children but shifting off complete responsibility on the school is not appropriate.

We need to acknowledge the inherent nature in a child but considers edification or parenting as mandatory component of development and declares that it entrusts this responsibility on parents. Edification of human and animal by inherent nature is only to a certain limited scope. Instinct may be a prevalent form but all creatures are not just dependent on their instincts. For example, a baby bird opens its mouth when it sees food in its mother’s beak by natural instinct, however to come out of the nest and fly in the sky is only possible after the great deal of effort and training given by its mother and not by instinct. Human beings are the topmost creations. Both human beings and animals are born with natural instincts but human beings have something more than animals which make them best of all the creations. For e.g. talent to learn and develop art, talent to procure things, the quality to make life better and happy and the quality of creativity. These qualities are not present in animals. Hence since ages tigers hunt when it is hungry, eats till its stomach is full and leaves the rest. Why did not it learn the method of storing its excess food in a cold storage or refrigerator? While a creature much smaller than the tiger, like an ant knows the method of stocking its food. We have been seeing for ages now that birds have never changed the design of their nest, whereas human beings have moved from the caves to the huts, then to the buildings, now have reached to smart rooms and to the buildings which touch the sky. This is because of the continuous training and quest to acquire knowledge and learn new things. Hence in this brief deliberation it is quite evident that children should not be left just to their natural instincts but they need to be mentored, tutored, educated and they need to be purified mentally as and when needed. This is primarily and significantly the responsibility of the parents.

At the same time schools should also accept their responsibilities. Supreme Court has also ordered that schools should have classes for personality and moral development. In 2002, Aruna Roy and others had filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to direct the schools to conduct moral education classes. Regarding this case the judge of the Supreme Court concluded ‘in the last 5 decades after Independence, we have been very neglectful in the development of the moral, spiritual and social aspects of students. As a result we can see a great decline in character and personality of students. The inadequate facilities for moral and ethical education in the schools are one of the main reasons for this situation.’

The development of a child into a social and moral being is the joint responsibility of the parents, school and society as the proverb says. “ As he see’s, so he behaves”.