Rising rate of violence in English schools
Jasmine Jaim | Sunday, 17 April 2011
Jasmine Jaim
I woke up with a noise! Then realised - that was the noise of the children. Just in front of the house there was a school. The school boys were playing with a ball in the play ground and naturally there was sound of excitement. I looked through the window of my room to see the children. At that time, I was in England to spend my vacation. I stayed at the house of my grandmother (she was the aunt of my father). Every day I went outside to visit different places. Usually, I got up early with the alarm of my clock so that I could spend the entire day properly. However, in a few days, I tried to have sleep for a long time but got awakened because of the noise of the kids. That sound acted like the alarm from the environment! In general, the residential places of London were too calm and quite. In this background, the excitement of the school children seemed unusual. Therefore, some did not like to stay in such places. On the contrary, my grandmother, who was a school teacher in England, preferred this house for living as she found very lively environment there because of the children. I also liked the thrill of the children. The pleasure was too innocent! I loved to see the kids playing! After a while I went downstairs. I was going through the newspaper named Shurma - one Bangla newspaper published in England. From there, I came across the news about a short film. The film received good response from the audience. A young boy, who was probably at the age of 14 or 15 years, prepared the film during the Christmas vacation and the most striking information was that the parents of the boy were Bangladeshi (so far I recall). That is a matter of pride for us! The film was based on school violence particularly on knife crime. I knew about knife crime and gun crime of the USA but was not aware about these sorts of crime in the UK. Then I came to know from my grandmother that in the foot steps of the pupils of the USA, students in UK are also engaging in such crimes. The violence in school was getting attention of the public. Particularly, the deaths of a string of young people from knife attacks in London and other cities sparked intense media interest. Even schools had the power to use metal detectors to check their pupils to ensure that they were not carrying dangerous weapons. Recently, I have gone through a survey result about the school violence in the UK and then have realised how serious the situation can be. The survey was conducted on 4,715 pupils in school and 687 excluded pupils aged 11-16. The study revealed that a significant number of pupils (28%), specially those who were excluded (57%) carried knife in the last year. Moreover, a good number of guys who were excluded (14%) said they used a knife against another person and many (21%) of the excluded guys said they had threatened another person with a weapon. In addition, 15% of children in schools felt "a bit" or "very unsafe" according to the Youth Justice Board. However, it should be mentioned that according to the Department for Children, Schools and Families the vast majority of schools are still very safe places. The government and school authority have become very strict regarding resisting the school violence. It is a criminal offence to have a knife or other weapon on school premises. Schools are able to 'screen' all pupils for knives at any time, without consent, even if there is no obvious reason for suspicion or call to the police to conduct a search. If a pupil refuses to be searched or screened, the school can refuse to have the pupil on the premises. The consequence will be 'unauthorized absence'. This can affect the parents also, as they have a legal responsibility to ensure their child attends school. Besides, if a knife or other weapon is found on a pupil, the police will be called and it is likely that the student will be arrested. To discourage the school violence, educational drama groups are calling up schools and offering to run workshops promising to deter children from engaging violence. Moreover, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has published guidance for schools on tackling gangs and group offending which advises on a range of practical strategies that schools may wish to use to tackle such issues. These include targeted approaches through the curriculum. Considering the context of Bangladesh, the school children are quite innocent. Some students fight in the school but without any weapon. Teachers can manage their pupils; at least, no other authority is required to assist them. The crime in school is quite unusual in our country. In this respect, the children of our country are better than those of the more civilized countries! However, in general, Bangladeshi kids try to copy the western people blindly. That is an alarming issue. Still I hope that the situation would never be same like in the western world! Let us get back to that day again. After taking breakfast, I prepared myself to go outside with my grandfather. We were walking through the street. Suddenly, I found the noise of school children was almost quite. Actually, the ball was out of the boundary of the school. They were not able to pick up the ball from the street so easily. One boy requested me to throw the ball. I took the ball; it was too soft. I threw it to them. They caught the ball and again I found their excitement. Kids should be like that! I looked at them for a while and thought - who can imagine that these guys can be so ferocious! I took a long breath and again stared walking. The writer is Lecturer of Institute of Business Administration, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka
I woke up with a noise! Then realised - that was the noise of the children. Just in front of the house there was a school. The school boys were playing with a ball in the play ground and naturally there was sound of excitement. I looked through the window of my room to see the children. At that time, I was in England to spend my vacation. I stayed at the house of my grandmother (she was the aunt of my father). Every day I went outside to visit different places. Usually, I got up early with the alarm of my clock so that I could spend the entire day properly. However, in a few days, I tried to have sleep for a long time but got awakened because of the noise of the kids. That sound acted like the alarm from the environment! In general, the residential places of London were too calm and quite. In this background, the excitement of the school children seemed unusual. Therefore, some did not like to stay in such places. On the contrary, my grandmother, who was a school teacher in England, preferred this house for living as she found very lively environment there because of the children. I also liked the thrill of the children. The pleasure was too innocent! I loved to see the kids playing! After a while I went downstairs. I was going through the newspaper named Shurma - one Bangla newspaper published in England. From there, I came across the news about a short film. The film received good response from the audience. A young boy, who was probably at the age of 14 or 15 years, prepared the film during the Christmas vacation and the most striking information was that the parents of the boy were Bangladeshi (so far I recall). That is a matter of pride for us! The film was based on school violence particularly on knife crime. I knew about knife crime and gun crime of the USA but was not aware about these sorts of crime in the UK. Then I came to know from my grandmother that in the foot steps of the pupils of the USA, students in UK are also engaging in such crimes. The violence in school was getting attention of the public. Particularly, the deaths of a string of young people from knife attacks in London and other cities sparked intense media interest. Even schools had the power to use metal detectors to check their pupils to ensure that they were not carrying dangerous weapons. Recently, I have gone through a survey result about the school violence in the UK and then have realised how serious the situation can be. The survey was conducted on 4,715 pupils in school and 687 excluded pupils aged 11-16. The study revealed that a significant number of pupils (28%), specially those who were excluded (57%) carried knife in the last year. Moreover, a good number of guys who were excluded (14%) said they used a knife against another person and many (21%) of the excluded guys said they had threatened another person with a weapon. In addition, 15% of children in schools felt "a bit" or "very unsafe" according to the Youth Justice Board. However, it should be mentioned that according to the Department for Children, Schools and Families the vast majority of schools are still very safe places. The government and school authority have become very strict regarding resisting the school violence. It is a criminal offence to have a knife or other weapon on school premises. Schools are able to 'screen' all pupils for knives at any time, without consent, even if there is no obvious reason for suspicion or call to the police to conduct a search. If a pupil refuses to be searched or screened, the school can refuse to have the pupil on the premises. The consequence will be 'unauthorized absence'. This can affect the parents also, as they have a legal responsibility to ensure their child attends school. Besides, if a knife or other weapon is found on a pupil, the police will be called and it is likely that the student will be arrested. To discourage the school violence, educational drama groups are calling up schools and offering to run workshops promising to deter children from engaging violence. Moreover, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has published guidance for schools on tackling gangs and group offending which advises on a range of practical strategies that schools may wish to use to tackle such issues. These include targeted approaches through the curriculum. Considering the context of Bangladesh, the school children are quite innocent. Some students fight in the school but without any weapon. Teachers can manage their pupils; at least, no other authority is required to assist them. The crime in school is quite unusual in our country. In this respect, the children of our country are better than those of the more civilized countries! However, in general, Bangladeshi kids try to copy the western people blindly. That is an alarming issue. Still I hope that the situation would never be same like in the western world! Let us get back to that day again. After taking breakfast, I prepared myself to go outside with my grandfather. We were walking through the street. Suddenly, I found the noise of school children was almost quite. Actually, the ball was out of the boundary of the school. They were not able to pick up the ball from the street so easily. One boy requested me to throw the ball. I took the ball; it was too soft. I threw it to them. They caught the ball and again I found their excitement. Kids should be like that! I looked at them for a while and thought - who can imagine that these guys can be so ferocious! I took a long breath and again stared walking. The writer is Lecturer of Institute of Business Administration, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka