'Character building of students to be taken up from school level'

Kolkata: In the wake of back-to-back incidents of teachers being manhandled by college students in the last few days at a number of institutions across the city, the state Education department is mulling the idea of introducing value education right from the school level. The matter will be soon discussed with an expert committee on how should it be incorporated within the curriculum.

The department believes that there has been a degradation of moral values among a section of students and the time is ripe to address the issue.

"The respect for teachers among students is lacking. So we have to focus on character-building of the students and this needs to be taken up right from the school level," a senior official of the Education department said.

State Education minister Partha Chatterjee also expressed his concern over the rise in such incidents and said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also speaks of moral values among students.

"In recent times, there have been cases when students have committed suicide after being reprimanded by their parents. When a teacher advises students to be disciplined he/she is being assaulted. As an individual these incidents have made me feel ashamed," Chatterjee said. He reiterated that he will soon speak with the expert committee in this regard.

Charuchandra College and Deshbandhu Girls' College in South Kolkata have been on the boil last week where teachers were heckled by the students.

At Charuchandra, the shutdown was withdrawn after Partha Chatterjee intervened into the matter and said college should not have taken a unilateral decision without consulting the Higher Education department on the matter.

Chatterjee said he was neither in favour of the gherao of the principal's office by the students nor the subsequent decision of the college management to go for indefinite closure of the institution.

A section of the students had allegedly manhandled a teacher and a non-teaching staff of the college during an agitation at the principal's office over removal of a security guard and inadequate safety measures on campus.

Even Governor K N Tripathi condemned the agitation and said students should not behave in a way that deviates from the tradition of showing respect to their teachers.