Education aims at the harmonious development of human personality. The school must provide opportunities for pupils to grow physically, mentally, emotionally and socially, in an atmosphere of freedom and community life. Growth is a continuous process. Hence, the opportunity provided for growth must be an extension of experiences of pupils at home and in community. The onus of creating such opportunities lies with the teacher. The knowledge of home atmosphere of pupils and of local environment would equip the teacher to do his job in the best possible manner.
Indiscipline in educational institutions and the standard of education are the two baffling problems in Indian educational system. They, like others have been analysed by educationists and fact-finding investigations have been conducted by the research department of various universities. They indicate that the atmosphere of home and society contribute a lot for the malady. Schools cannot stand isolated from the community. Hence, if there is indiscipline in school, its cause must be searched for in the society. If a boy is boisterous or rude in his behaviour, or flouts the authorities, the teacher must investigate the cause at home. So also to know the reasons for truancy, late coming, day dreaming, sleeping in the class etc., the teachers must grasp the emotional upheavals in the pupil’s mind and analyse the personal problems of the individual concerned along with the study of home environment and the society in which the individual moves. A teacher must always try to understand and analyse the socio-economic and cultural background of the pupils, because they account for their interest and emotional set-up, tastes and temperaments, whims and idiosyncrasy.
To give good education to our pupils the curriculum must be expanded in accordance with the widest meaning of the term, by incorporating innumerable curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities into it. The school plant and organisation of work must be improved. A large number of teachers must be trained in technical aspects of education like, guidance, library service, physical education etc. Even the state in a sound financial position cannot meet the monetary commitments implied in such programmes. The reason is obvious. The state has to find resources not only for improving the schools maintained by it, but also for helping private schools through loans and grants. Hence, the parents must also help the schools by providing funds to meet the demands for both increasing and improving educational opportunities to secure stimulating leadership, excellent school plant, efficient teachers, expanded curriculum etc. It must be known that “It is more economical to invest in education for the betterment of human welfare than it is to waste lives and money through war, criminality, and mental disease”.
Parents shoulder the entire responsibility on the management and the government. In certain places, they believe that, once the child is admitted, it is the responsibility of the school to see that their wards are properly educated; and they have no responsibility in the matter. They even cease to visit the school after admission except on rare occasions like the annual function and the annual promotion of pupils. Parents are less interested in learning the objectives and the nature of the curriculum of the modern school. They never worry about the influence of these on the growth of their children.
Parents often adopt an attitude of apathy or antipathy to educational problems. For instance, when there is an agitation of pupils about a simple matter like the difficulty of a paper in the annual examination, or the expulsion of a pupil on grave moral grounds, parents adopt an indifferent apathetic attitude. When there is a problem like ‘fall in standards’ some people indulge in aggressive criticisms and wanton attacks subjecting the schools to non-constructive condemnation. They take up cudgels against the teachers or the curriculum saying that teachers are inefficient or irresponsible, or that the curriculum is ill-conceived or overcrowded. They have no concrete or constructive suggestions to provide for improving the existing condition.
Parents always consider that it is the sole responsibility of the government or the management, or both together, to find financial resources to meet all expenses incurred in introducing any new program or activity into the school. They do not even hesitate to agitate either against the government when any new tax, like ‘educational cess’, is being levied, or against the management when any simple collection is being made from the public for an educational purpose. Of course, the government and the management have the greatest responsibility in running the school efficiently. But, can these two agencies alone shoulder the whole responsibility? The answer is in the negative. But one thing should be remembered both by the government and the management that the money collected from the pupils should be strictly used for the developmental purpose of the school or for the educational purpose alone. For example, to construct new buildings and to maintain the existing school buildings, to maintain and buy new infrastructural facilities, to appoint qualified teachers, to increase the salary of the teachers, to improve lab facilities, to buy new instructional materials, to provide new co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, expansion of library facilities and so on; because after all the students are going to get benefitted by these changes or rather the students are the consumers. Hence, those who reap the result should pay for it also.
Lack of parental interest in education may be due to parent’s inexperience, ignorance, lack of education or wantonness. Whatever it be, the healthy co-operation of parents for educational reconstruction is imperative, and it must always be enlisted.
The facts mentioned above indicate the need for a close and healthy relationship between home and the school. There must be true collaboration between parents and teachers. They alone can improve educational standards and solve the baffling problems of education. It is obvious that an ordinary teacher who is overloaded with work and having a multitude of duties cannot find time and facilities to contact the parents of, say, forty to fifty pupils in the class. The same is true of parents also. A parent cannot meet say a dozen teachers who may teach his/her ward, because he/she may have excessive domestic liabilities and innumerable social duties. The only solution is a parent-teacher organisation.
It is imperative to plan and execute new programmes as and when it requires, for educational reconstruction. In this context, the parent- teacher organization has a vial role to play for the following reasons.
A parent-teacher organisation can bridge the gap between professional educationists and non-professional parents, and bring the interest of both teachers and parents to bear upon the education of future citizens of the nation. Teachers and parents can sit together around a table to discuss and decide what each should do to improve the education of the country. Teachers get valuable opportunities to understand their pupils and the individual differences. This enables them to solve day-to-day problems of instruction. It also assists them not only to formulate the subject-matter but also to adopt methods of instruction and techniques of teaching.
Parent-teacher organisations make it possible for the school to frame administrative policies not detrimental to the interest of society. When pupils find that both parents and teachers are evincing interest in their education in the same way they are very much encouraged. Furthermore, the writer firmly believes that the parent-teacher organisation has high potentiality to eliminate entirely all problems of indiscipline in educational institutions. When a parent-teacher organisation disapproves hooliganism and subversive activities, and decides that pupils should not take part in a strike, the children simply cannot go on strike. It is obvious that, no parent will want his/her children involved in a strike, or desire to make a mess of the education of the country, because it means ruin of his / her own children.