Teachers need to be kind
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
M Shamsur Rabb Khan
Two recent incidents of high-handedness by schoolteachers resulted in the death of two promising students. A 17-year-old class 12 student in Bihar's Bhagalpur town died on October 26, after he was reportedly thrashed by his schoolteacher. In another incident reported from Ahmedabad, a class 11 student died after he was forced to take rounds of his school ground by his schoolteacher as a punishment for coming late.
In July this year, a class XII student of Alok Senior Secondary School, Udaipur, died after being allegedly beaten black and blue with a rod by his teacher. In a gruesome incident on March 21, 2007, a teacher from Samad Fakeer Dhani government school in Faladi village of Jaisalmer district was arrested on charges of beating a 12-year-old student to death for not doing his homework. And to put a blanket on the crime, the teacher dumped the body of the student in a well. What could be more gruesome than this! A teacher stripped a five-year-old girl and caned her. In February 2006, the maths teacher in Saraswati Vidya Mandir of Kanpur, tied the five-year old child to a chair, stripped and caned her severely with such cruelty that three other kids watching the punishment fainted.
Instances of such cruelty are in plenty. What is evident is the carrying forward the age-old legacy, which permits a teacher to inflict physical punishment to the students to such extremes. In the Indian educational scenario, beating or punishing students is part of learning, and a great majority of us must have experienced this at some points of time during our formative years. Though most modern schools pretend to have discarded the rod, it is common knowledge that there is more stick than carrot in schools.
In a country where teacher or guru has been revered to the level of god, growing atrocities against pupils is matter of concern, even students as small as four or five years have been caned for peccadilloes. A teacher's words are sacrosanct, and any riposte, though right, are considered an affront. Many a brutal incident in the recent past have put the focus back on all sorts of abuse - from physical beating to rape to public humiliation that children suffer in the hands of teachers.
Educationalists and childcare givers are opposed to any idea that leads to corporal punishment. Hence, the stick and carrot method is undesirable in modern education system. There is increasing awareness among civilised societies to facilitate learning through a system of rewards alone. Children, they say, are quicker than most adults at grasping new concepts and acquiring skills but have their own way of figuring out things. Very often schools destroy their natural thinking abilities by insisting on conformity. Children naturally like to learn, but do not like being pushed around. Schooling rarely promotes learning as instructors insist on rote learning. Homework is the biggest culprit, which puts the small kids in dire situations, and the problem becomes all the more serious for them, if their parents are unlettered. Either they skip the class or come laden with fear of being caned or boxed or shouted at. Because the threat from the teacher keeps on haunting all the time, it prevents even the good students to employ their natural faculties.
By threat mechanism, a teacher may scar the mind of a child not by corporal punishment alone. Disparaging remarks as "you are good for nothing," "you are fool", "you are worthless" etc., can devastate a child's confidence. The focus is not on the child but the prestige that the name of the institution carries or the teacher demands. It is, indeed, unfortunate that while the European Union is in the process of finalising a charter of rights for pets, Indian children continue to suffer indignities in the hands of those who are supposed to be caregivers.
Though corporal punishment or physical punishment stands banned throughout the country, little has been done in India to restrain the hands that hit the young innocent ruthlessly. In a landmark judgement, the Delhi High Court struck down the provision for corporal punishment, except ten cane strokes on the palms of a student, provided under the Delhi School Education Act, in December 2000. One of the reasons for increase in drop-out rate in rural India has been the teacher-student relationship which either inspire or discourage the taught. Provinces have failed to ensure the safety of children in schools. But their inability to monitor the implementation of the directions is one thing, "inhuman approach" of the teachers is another. However, teachers not only think but firmly believe that fear and constant fear is the key to learning. Throwing the rules of the book to the winds, they use all possible means of physical punishment.
In practice, physical punishment is the norm in educational institutions throughout the country, and is used as a tool to control children. Its proponents argue that it is effective and cite the old adage "spare the rod and spoil the child" to validate its usage. Some argue that physical punishment toughens children and that a few raps, slaps and canes will not go amiss or harm children. In thousands of madarsas all over the country, physical punishment is rampant and the young children are beaten severely by enraged teachers, as if the students are animals not humans.
Physical punishments include making students stand in the sun for the whole day, forcing children kneel down, making them stand on the bench or keep hands raised for long, pressing hard the fingers keeping a pencil in between, caning and pinching and twisting the ears.
Slapping by the opposite sex, pinning paper on their back with the inscription, "I am a fool", "I am a donkey" etc., are some of the emotional punishments.
The punishment, however, could go to the extent of detention during the break, locking them in a dark room, sending them home or forcing the children to wait outside the gate.
Neither religion, nor the parents, nor the laws allow any of it in the name of enforcing discipline, and to morality and character. Punishment may deter a child from repeating acts of indiscipline to some extent, but it cannot improve his understanding of the issue. Student beating always resulted in harmful and negative side effects. The teaching community needs to understand this.
Two recent incidents of high-handedness by schoolteachers resulted in the death of two promising students. A 17-year-old class 12 student in Bihar's Bhagalpur town died on October 26, after he was reportedly thrashed by his schoolteacher. In another incident reported from Ahmedabad, a class 11 student died after he was forced to take rounds of his school ground by his schoolteacher as a punishment for coming late.
In July this year, a class XII student of Alok Senior Secondary School, Udaipur, died after being allegedly beaten black and blue with a rod by his teacher. In a gruesome incident on March 21, 2007, a teacher from Samad Fakeer Dhani government school in Faladi village of Jaisalmer district was arrested on charges of beating a 12-year-old student to death for not doing his homework. And to put a blanket on the crime, the teacher dumped the body of the student in a well. What could be more gruesome than this! A teacher stripped a five-year-old girl and caned her. In February 2006, the maths teacher in Saraswati Vidya Mandir of Kanpur, tied the five-year old child to a chair, stripped and caned her severely with such cruelty that three other kids watching the punishment fainted.
Instances of such cruelty are in plenty. What is evident is the carrying forward the age-old legacy, which permits a teacher to inflict physical punishment to the students to such extremes. In the Indian educational scenario, beating or punishing students is part of learning, and a great majority of us must have experienced this at some points of time during our formative years. Though most modern schools pretend to have discarded the rod, it is common knowledge that there is more stick than carrot in schools.
In a country where teacher or guru has been revered to the level of god, growing atrocities against pupils is matter of concern, even students as small as four or five years have been caned for peccadilloes. A teacher's words are sacrosanct, and any riposte, though right, are considered an affront. Many a brutal incident in the recent past have put the focus back on all sorts of abuse - from physical beating to rape to public humiliation that children suffer in the hands of teachers.
Educationalists and childcare givers are opposed to any idea that leads to corporal punishment. Hence, the stick and carrot method is undesirable in modern education system. There is increasing awareness among civilised societies to facilitate learning through a system of rewards alone. Children, they say, are quicker than most adults at grasping new concepts and acquiring skills but have their own way of figuring out things. Very often schools destroy their natural thinking abilities by insisting on conformity. Children naturally like to learn, but do not like being pushed around. Schooling rarely promotes learning as instructors insist on rote learning. Homework is the biggest culprit, which puts the small kids in dire situations, and the problem becomes all the more serious for them, if their parents are unlettered. Either they skip the class or come laden with fear of being caned or boxed or shouted at. Because the threat from the teacher keeps on haunting all the time, it prevents even the good students to employ their natural faculties.
By threat mechanism, a teacher may scar the mind of a child not by corporal punishment alone. Disparaging remarks as "you are good for nothing," "you are fool", "you are worthless" etc., can devastate a child's confidence. The focus is not on the child but the prestige that the name of the institution carries or the teacher demands. It is, indeed, unfortunate that while the European Union is in the process of finalising a charter of rights for pets, Indian children continue to suffer indignities in the hands of those who are supposed to be caregivers.
Though corporal punishment or physical punishment stands banned throughout the country, little has been done in India to restrain the hands that hit the young innocent ruthlessly. In a landmark judgement, the Delhi High Court struck down the provision for corporal punishment, except ten cane strokes on the palms of a student, provided under the Delhi School Education Act, in December 2000. One of the reasons for increase in drop-out rate in rural India has been the teacher-student relationship which either inspire or discourage the taught. Provinces have failed to ensure the safety of children in schools. But their inability to monitor the implementation of the directions is one thing, "inhuman approach" of the teachers is another. However, teachers not only think but firmly believe that fear and constant fear is the key to learning. Throwing the rules of the book to the winds, they use all possible means of physical punishment.
In practice, physical punishment is the norm in educational institutions throughout the country, and is used as a tool to control children. Its proponents argue that it is effective and cite the old adage "spare the rod and spoil the child" to validate its usage. Some argue that physical punishment toughens children and that a few raps, slaps and canes will not go amiss or harm children. In thousands of madarsas all over the country, physical punishment is rampant and the young children are beaten severely by enraged teachers, as if the students are animals not humans.
Physical punishments include making students stand in the sun for the whole day, forcing children kneel down, making them stand on the bench or keep hands raised for long, pressing hard the fingers keeping a pencil in between, caning and pinching and twisting the ears.
Slapping by the opposite sex, pinning paper on their back with the inscription, "I am a fool", "I am a donkey" etc., are some of the emotional punishments.
The punishment, however, could go to the extent of detention during the break, locking them in a dark room, sending them home or forcing the children to wait outside the gate.
Neither religion, nor the parents, nor the laws allow any of it in the name of enforcing discipline, and to morality and character. Punishment may deter a child from repeating acts of indiscipline to some extent, but it cannot improve his understanding of the issue. Student beating always resulted in harmful and negative side effects. The teaching community needs to understand this.