Wednesday, 6 November 2013 00:00
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A teacher cuts a student’s pants while another splits an eardrum through a hearty slap. These are some of the headlines that shocked readers see in newspapers on a daily basis. How has discipline become such a deplorable act? Why are children punished in such cruel and humiliating ways and what can be done about it?
Sri Lanka’s schools are already a morass of problems. Stepping up the fight against corruption and indiscipline in education is necessary not only to keep kids in school and meet literacy and development goals, but also to ensure that the next generation is prepared to be good citizens.
No doubt the majority of teachers are kinder to their students and it is equally likely that students behave in unruly, exasperating and unkind ways deserving of punishment. Yet the challenge is to find a balance between the crime and punishment.
Many schools around the world have banned corporal punishment simply because it is seen as a deeply scarring practice, which will affect the mental and physical wellbeing of a child for years or even possibly the rest of their lives. Most parents do not beat their children nowadays even though they may not have been spared the rod when they were young. Others limit themselves to minor physical punishments.
Yet it is no secret that severe punishments do take place in and outside of school. This is made all the more challenging as drawing the line between punishment and abuse is difficult and often fraught with controversy. Some teachers and parents believe that occasional physical punishment is not a bad idea while others shun it completely.
Policing the standards of what is permissible and what is not often remains complicated. In the incident of a teacher’s slapping a child hard enough to split his ear drum has been taken up by the Police but it is unclear how effective this will be in terms of protecting the student in the future if he decides to remain in the same school. What if the teacher is transferred? What will be the fate of students at the new school? Will authorities take any steps to teach the teacher the error of such actions as is done in some developed countries? Is this not an indication that policies also need to change?
National policymakers should understand the teacher is a role model and the school as a microcosm of society, and train teachers to teach by example. The international community and relevant international organisations, such as the World Bank and UNESCO, should prioritise efforts to assist governments in tackling discipline issues. Clearer guidelines need to be adopted on how and how much a child can be punished along with what parameters are acceptable and what others would cross the line.
The role of education is in strengthening personal and professional integrity and capacity as well as traits such as empathy, kindness and care. A student population desensitised by violence is not going to make for a better future.
Sadly, cleaning house in Sri Lanka’s education sector is a long, arduous and next-to-impossible process. The harder this goal becomes, the less hope the future has.
