Dithering school in inculcating morality: Plight of Indian school system

Formation of a social personality is said to be the first and foremost function of education that contributes towards social stability or social cohesion, a societal function of education. If education enables the individual to internalise ideologies, values, norms, attitudes and behaviour patterns institutionalised in the society then it contributes towards the formation of social personality. Formation of social personality of individuals helps them assume the role of responsible citizens. School teacher is said to be the agent of society to accomplish this task across generations. For that he ought to be first in the possession of basic values of human living and then the professional values. A lot of studies and reports have highlighted the erosion of these values among the teachers of Indian school system. This paper is based on a preliminary study to investigate the prevalence of some unethical and unprofessional values viz. absenteeism, dereliction of duty, discrimination, and lack of responsibility, authoritarianism and commercial venality, among the school teachers of Punjab state of India. A comparative appraisal among public and private school teachers is also made.