Of late, excursions of school and college students are becoming quite unsafe. Almost every second day, newspapers carry reports of students either drowning in the sea or meeting with fatal accidents in theme parks.
A recent report of a twelve-year-old boy drowning in the swimming pool of an amusement park was quite scary. This accident took place despite the presence of half-a-dozen life guards. The school authorities and the management of the theme parks are invariably blamed for such mishaps. Are we right in doing so?
Can a batch of 100-150 boisterous students be monitored by a few teachers? Having been a teacher for the last thirty years, I know it is very difficult to keep an eye on every student in a large group. The government rule says that the student teacher ratio during an excursion should be 10:1. Very few institutions have the necessary staff strength to adhere to this. Even when students are grouped in small numbers of fifteen or twenty under a particular staff member, they tend to run away to mingle with their friends. Certain schools involve parents as volunteers during excursions. This definitely gives the parents an insight into the problems faced by teachers. Controlling senior students is even more arduous.
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Today’s children have ample outings from home along with their parents, which was not the case some years ago. This generation is difficult to please as they find most of the places “boring”!
Under these circumstances, is it necessary for educational institutions to undertake these excursions which often results in fatal accidents? Is it worth taking the risk involved in taking groups of students on an excursion? Who stands to gain out of such excursions other than tour operators who organise such trips for a hefty fee?
If the government feels such excursions are a must as a part of the curriculum they should have a professional team under their education or tourism department to organise such events for schools.
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The writer is a senior teacher of A.M.M. Matriculation and Higher Secondary School, Kotturpuram, Chennai.