Waste disposal
The city and district administration deserve praise for making elaborate arrangements this time to ensure the people witness and participate in Chithirai festival without any hassles by increasing the frequency of bus services and setting up more mobile toilets. But much needs to be done on crowd management and waste disposal. Inadequate number of garbage bins has led to overflowing of the bins and wastes strewn on busy thoroughfares. This should be addressed by the authorities.
M.Jeyaram,
Sholavandan
Sensitise students on current issues
The views of Alan Maley, the former British Council’s South India (Madras) Regional Director on the role of teachers (Education Plus, April 11) deserve serious attention of our educationists. Education, as he says, should prepare learners for the world they will have to live in. Besides the evil of waging war that kills and makes people refugees or threat posed by climate change, students need to be sensitised about issues like corruption and violence in the name of religion and caste, gender discrimination, eve-teasing, alcohol or drug addiction, and injustice of all kinds that are happening around them. A dispassionate discussion and brainstorming of each such instance in class, including possible remedial steps to end them, under the guidance of unbiased teachers will definitely make students emerge as socially responsible citizens.
K. Natarajan,
Tahsildar Nagar
Footboard travel
School students fancy footboard travel all the time. Government school students depend on TNSTC bus services only. In Tirumangalam bus stand, during evening hours, students run hither and there to catch their buses, mostly moving buses. The school children are not aware of the risk of “padiyil payanam, nodiyil maranam” and they stand on footboard, even if seats are available. Everybody can see this practice but and none can advise them. This is the right time to incorporate a lesson on ‘How to travel in public transport, and about road safety rules’ in the school textbooks to discipline them.
D. Ganesh,
Tirunagar
