Aggression arises when one's most basic needs of safety and self-esteem are not met with. Many educators now strongly feel that aggression breeds in our social institutions like schools and colleges due the following unchallenged and un-analyzed practices such as competitions in educational activities and normative evaluation; competitive struggle for wealth, comforts and material acquisition; high expectations and unrealistic goals as well as social and gender inequity.
The upsurge in the incidents of violence in schools indicates that all is not well with the learning environment in schools. The shootouts in various schools in India stand a testimony.
When the sociological foundation of the school is weak both the teacher behaviour and the student behaviour deteriorate leading to inter-personal conflicts. Thus, there is a need to restore the school and classroom environment conducive to the development of pro-social skills of mutual concern, cooperation, caring and sharing.
Schools need to become social institutions conducive to learning and, for this, the learning environment in schools needs to be planned, structured and mobilized so that the schools become an extended larger family of teachers and students both creating social environment conducive to learning is a complex task and requires hard work on the part of all school personnel.
As long as the educational institutions are riddled with competition, social biases and hierarchical administrative structures, they will keep on breeding aggressions. There are quite a few sensitive educators and social scientists that go the extent suggesting the de-schooling of society and dub the present classrooms practices as a hoax.
Many educators now firmly believe that the aggression arises due to Social Skills Deficits and lack of training in problem-solving skills. There is a need to run the educational institutions with participatory management practices and cooperative instructional methods.