Kerala: Students are aware of rights now

KOZHIKODE: The student -teacher relationship has undergone a change in the schools in Kerala with the students becoming more aware of child rights and the  teachers  turning  more cautious  in their  behaviour towards their wards.   The teachers are aware of the fact that the students can go to the child rights commission/officials raising their complaints any time. Recently,  ahead of Onam examination, the teachers in the district were instructed  by their  school heads to avoid  putting cross signs in answer papers indicating wrong answers, so as not to create a negative thought in the students.

“Instead of the cross signs we were  asked to put any other signs to indicate a wrong answer,”  said Naseera (name changed), a  teacher here. Students have started questioning teachers even  for  small issues.  Marks have been replaced by grades, citing less marks cause  tension to the students compared to less grades. Nazeer Chaliyam, member,  Kerala State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights,  said that it was unscientific to replace cross signs with other signs and directly or indirectly indicate that the answer is wrong.   Such signs create worry to the  students and we don’t want them  to get upset for all these silly issues,”  Chaliyam said.

Students are now more confident to talk about child rights to their teachers.  The  teachers and  the institutions’ heads are also more cautious while dealing with their students, he added. Child psychologist Suresh Nambiar said that  child rights have  also been  misused. Students should not worry about getting  their hair braided or  seeing a cross sign for wrong answers, but  pursue higher academic matters, he opined.