Sunday, May 2, 2010

Imposition

Karthik is studying in fourth standard English medium at St Paul's Convent High School..... 

 It was one more day for him in the school. Inserting a pencil in between, his little fingers were being twisted hardly by his class teacher, in an attempt to crush the pencil so that Karthik can feel the pain of being guilty for the blunder he has committed....

Second time, he was being made to be slapped on his cheeks by all his classmates for repeating the same shameful mistake. 

He never told his parents about these punishments. He was not sure of their response as his elder sister never did such mistakes. Besides, his low grades made him not to raise the issue with his parents.  He felt low and dejected. He had a tender anguish in him. He could not tolerate both the physical and verbal abuse by his teacher. The punishments were haunting him even at playground.

 Days  were rolling on. Karthik didn't learn from his mistakes. It was one more day for him. Third time, Karthik was being beaten brutally and was hospitalized for attempting the same blunder.  Then followed his parents, media and school management to respond in their convenient ways.

In all these three instances he had made the mistake of uttering few normal words in his mother tongue, Telugu, unintentionally. In that school , only two languages are allowed for communication. First one is English and the second one is English.  Vernacular languages/mother tongue is a strict no no.




PS : 
1. Based on a real incident in Andhra Pradesh.
2. The insistence of usage of English as the only  language of communication  in schools is resulting in gradual erasing of mother tongues/vernaculars

16 comments:

Beyond Horizon said...

sad but realistic situation currently.....d perception abt always to be good in academics.....comparison between siblings must be changed.....

sushobhan roy said...

sad incident.. Hope such kind of apathy is noticed and severe punishment should be given to the perpetrators..:)

Mahesh Aadhya Kalal said...

@ Beyond Horizons...
@ Sushobhan roy...

Thanks for the feedback and the response....but in this post my main concern in this post is the treatment of mother tongue usage by children in schools along with the corporate punishment ....
Guess i didnt put it in the right way....

Bharathi said...

I think this is because our people think English is knowledge and not language. shame on us.

Rachana Shakyawar said...

@ Mahesh

I loved reading this post...so well written..but it ended so soon :(

~I have also faced the same moments in my School! We were not allowed to speak in other language than English! But my school's way to punish was amazing!

~ Everyday bunch of kids (regardless of which class) were caught speaking in other language and the Principal of the School announced their names..also asked each one of that student to speak 5-sentences in English on the Stage at the Assembly.

It was a kind of a punshiment I never felt like that! It removed our fear of being on stage to speak!

Beating or humilating kids in school, home or social place is completely No-no! Perhaps, we still find in many schools some utter silly reasons to punish and harras kids! Truly sad!

~Keep the Spark ALIve..

BK Chowla, said...

Corrective steps must be taken to ensure such incidents do nit occur again.

Renu said...

It is sad to see the children being victimised this way, though if one studies in an english medium school, one must be prepared for speaking in english only and it is to the student's advantage only.
For mother tongue..one must learn and speak it outside school...but it doesnt mean that children should be given such harsh punishments which may scar them physically and mentally both.

Mahesh Aadhya Kalal said...

@ Bharathi...
You are correct in saying so.....I do agree with you buddy

@ Rachana...

Hey buddy....yes, it indeed ended soon.....somehow i came with a really bad narration in my latest post 'Imposition'.... I did spoil the topic..... couldn't get my intention reflected in the writing....it needed more lines and further analysis :( .... am planning for marathons soon :)

The process followed in your school is really commendable...
Lets hope the corporate punishments and the treatment of vernaculars will get soft shades in approach...

Thanks for the feedback buddy.....am dwelling on that :)

Mahesh Aadhya Kalal said...

@ BK Chowla...
Sir, i would like ot read your take on vernaculars versus english language...
PS : I am unable to comment on ur posts , may be coz of disquz

@ Renu...

Welcome to wisdomism...
You have very well presented your opinion with balanced approach...
i agree with every word you said....you have aptly and pragmatically responded to the core of the happening and contemporary issue
Thanks Renu :)

Roshmi Sinha said...

Sad... is all I can say.

The ironical part is that... english has its roots in sanskrit and other languages spoken in India and elsewhere...

Mahesh Aadhya Kalal said...

@ Roshmi...

english has its roots in sanskrit and other languages spoken in India and elsewhere...

Yea, this is where we tend to overlook certain things and simply ape whatever is from other side of the globe...
very good and relevant point you have made here... Thanks buddy :)

Siddhesh Kabe said...

Shit this is so dejected, we should encourage them to speak our local languages...damm it!!

santosh said...

One point I want to make out here is that...
-- Don't you all think that there is a parent's share in these kind of acts?
-- Only if a child studies in so called corporate schools, gets education?
-- And in those so called corporate schools do you think that a student gets moral and ethics values?
-- Is education means all about speaking in English, getting more than 95%, 7am to 7pm school arrest, no sports, no extra curricular activities, no moral and ethical values...?
-- Schools are just meant for earning more and more money?

... Whatever the reason may be, I find that the complete mistake is with parents who are supporting such kind of schools and putting more n more pressure on students.

... TAARE ZAMEEN PAR ...

Mahesh Aadhya Kalal said...

@ Siddhesh 'Ravan' Kabe
Comprehensively speaking, yes it is indeed shit..wiping out nearly hundreds of languages in India alone.....may be only domination si certain :)

@ Santhosh ...

You know i agree with all the points you said but parents major insecurity is their kids future and they are ready to plunge into anything that earns their wards a USofA flight ticket ....

geeta said...

Such harsh punishments hinders mental growth of the children...And just because he spoke few words in his mother tongue...its ridiculous...
And if at all the school could not permit the students to speak other than English language ,the approach to maintain this discipline could have been positive....

Cheers

Mahesh Aadhya Kalal said...

@ Geeta,

"harsh punishments hinders mental growth" .... yes, this is what my intention behind writing this post along with the stress on English monopoly ...
Thanks for the response buddy :)