Strike in School

  

Strike in School

Strikes are the order of the day. The postal workers go on strike. So do the bus and tram workers. The factory workers and office babus are also ready to follow suit. The newspaper headlines draw our notice to such incidents all over the country.

Strikes have also become a regular feature in schools. Whenever the boys have any grievance, instead of settling it in an amicable manner, they abstain from coming to classes. The teenagers are also too ready to catch the strike fever. Today they strike for the freedom-fighters all over the world, yesterday it was against the police action in breaking up a maiden meeting and so on. This may be a good fun. But it dislocates the academic life of an institution and affects the cause of the students themselves.

Schools should always be kept free from strikes. Student life is the most important period of a man’s life. Disturbance in the academic discipline of schools, which the strikes inevitably bring in, have a most harmful effect on the immature and emotional minds of the students. There is a loss of working days at schools. The students do not read enough to learn properly. Besides, living in a place of constant excitement, they lose their sense of balance. They learn to defy authorities. They feel it is something heroic to break the law in some way or other. There cannot be much hope for the country if the future generation wastes time and energy in this way.

But frankly speaking, it is not the students only who are to blame. Too much of politics in schools and colleges has vitiated the academic atmosphere. The leaders of political parties build up their student fronts in schools and colleges to achieve their narrow political gains. Strikes are generally engineered and supported by interested political parties. The boys picket at the gates or lead processions or get into once mischief or other. They are very glad to get a holiday from their studies.

All these inevitably interfere with the primary duties of the students and prove injurious to their intellectual and moral growth. The wiser section of the country feel that young boys and girls should at first strive to acquire knowledge and follow intelligently the trend of affairs. In a word, they must prepare themselves for the serious business of politics so that they can view the current topics in their proper perspective. At present their roles are rather destructive. They act against the interest of the country, being misled by unprincipled leaders. In the large interests of future generations, schools should be out of bound for strikes. Students should not be allowed to be used as a tool by political groups of interests.