Thursday, December 30, 2021

Published December 30, 2021 by with 0 comment

SCHOOL INDISCIPLINE: HOW CAN WE MEND THE FAULTS?

There is a growing concern on students becoming audacious and intrepid to discipline, moral values and tradition. Everyone thinks school should teach and change their behaviour. The school policies on discipline management has become mere tool for school, without much accountability being shared by others.


Last week, I had the privilege of sitting on the first panel of educationists who reviewed the School Discipline Framework 2010 at Eco-Lodge Hotel Wangdiphodrang. A team consisted of principals, teachers, school counselors and officers from Education Monitoring  Division. This was the beginning to the call on a very important policy document every school look forward to.

Schools have confronted challenges, some even dragged to court, while many had to face the threat parents posed for hurting their children, even when rebuked or tapped to discipline. When reports of parent and student displeasure reached Dzongkhag or Ministry, there was more eye sore in the teacher than on students who failed to behave and abide even after repeated advices and caution.

This time we propose clauses to shift barrage of accountabilities to parents and guardians, and share equivalent Dzongkhag education office and the Ministry to be more supportive. Teachers are doing experts at teaching not at managing and counseling students the way society expects, yet they have done their best so far.

The schools have not failed in their efforts to guide, correct and provide chances for students to grow and change. Only school teachers will know how much concern and care, how much guidance and activities they do. So much time is spent by schools to correct students, to make them ‘nationally rooted’ yet teachers are tested to their limits. Parents cannot discipline one or two at home and they get hurt when teachers have to discipline hundred and thousands! 

The guideline we worked on will undergo several reviews, and will need to be comprehensive, scientific, traditional and progressive, while also maintaining stringent measures for severity of misbehavior. It is hoped that the new guideline will prevent misbehavior before it happens and use a variety of different approaches to guide their behavior positively.

It has been about twelve years since the Education Ministry provided with School Discipline policy Guide and framework to enable schools manage indiscipline and students’ offenses. This was a yardstick for schools to overcome  levying corporal punishment which was banned in 1997 with explicit reference to article 109 of the Penal Code 2004.

Schools were suggested to practice Positive Discipline strategies for resolving student indiscipline and to ensure a safe, secure and child-friendly school environment. While it is easy to speak from the theories, it has always been a challenge to deal with student offenders. 

The schools either used the framework directly or created school level policy based on the 2010 discipline framework which was one of the outcomes of 13th National Education Conference. However, different schools had different strategy and often students are handed sanctions which are not constructive and supportive for behaviour change. 

While it is necessary to have stringent rule to prevent and intervene indiscipline issues, there must be ways to also correct and counsel students in their failure. The guideline will not be prescriptive. It must be flexible within which school can use, considering vast array of diversity and subtleness in student behaviour.

Positive Discipline is the strategy of teaching-learning process to teach children to become responsible, respectful, resilient, and resourceful members of the community. It is based on the fact that children are constantly changing, growing, and developing.  It teaches important life skills in a manner that is deeply respectful and creates an inclusive environment for both children and adults, leading to mutual respect and self-worth. What about those who fail to abide and be corrected, those who are caught in repeated misdemeanor or severely denigrate school norms? If school cannot penalize stringently some of the misbehavior that is detrimental to other students and school culture, others will be promoted and influenced become a challenge. 

We cannot mold clay to create a pot, we cannot chisel rock to carve a statue, we cannot train oxen to plough with some tough measures upon few. If laws we make snare us to attain the expectation of a nation’s future leader, we must make laws that serve the purpose. We must find balance between science and situation, tradition and aspirations to optimize in the future in our schools. 

How much can teachers advice, how many times a child must waste a teacher’s time? In a week a principal spends on average dozen hours, sometimes with teachers too, in sitting a court house to make judgements. How many students can school Counsellor counsel if everything student misbehavior and failure must be referred to him. The support of parents and superiors, of relevant agencies have become critical to ensure teachers spent more instructional time.


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