News Today, Chennai, 21 June 2003 (http://www.corpun.com/ins00306.htm)

 

Terrorising students is part of a flawed education system

By G. Babu Jayakumar

In the Indian social milieu, treatment meted out to children anywhere is far from desirable - be it homes, schools or any public place - and brutality, both physical and psychological, is never frowned upon.

…..

But then we know that in the event of the long arm of the law catching up with every teacher who beats students, there would be no room in our jails and there would hardly be any teacher left in classrooms. That indeed is the real failure of our civil society - to prevent corporal punishment gain acceptability. And the blame should be shared by parents, teachers, school managements, educationists and policy-makers.

…….

This social acceptance to causing pain to children - be it with a view to sharpening their academic skills or disciplining them - gives a free hand to teachers to manhandle their charges and those landing the profession as the last resort to go a bit overboard, mostly to cover up their inadequacies and lack of commitment.

The Statesman, Calcutta, 3 July 2003 (http://www.corpun.com/ins00307.htm)

Editorial

Spare the rod

It took the hanging of a X Standard student of a private school in Chennai to scrap corporal punishment. That corporal punishment in one form or another has been around in schools for centuries is common knowledge. It has been an accepted disciplinary method in homes as well as schools. The 16-year-old by was allegedly hit on his cheek by one of his teachers in such a way that it left a tell-tale mark. Ashamed to face his fellow-students, the boy committed suicide. The Convention on Rights of the Child, adopted by the UN General Assembly to which India was a party, asks governments to take all measures to ensure that school discipline is maintained in a manner consistent with the child's human dignity, but Tamil Nadu Education Rules 51 authorised corporal punishment. A committee set up by the state government to revise the outdated rules has recommended that every child be given an opportunity to learn from error of his/her ways through corrective measures. "The school shall not cause mental and physical pain to the child", it said.

Along with revising Education Rules, government should also review the entire education system. Dominated by grades and competition, students are forced to cram for examinations. Not only schools, even some colleges in Tamil Nadu indulge in corporal punishment. Teaching is not exactly the best paid profession in the country. Often it attracts people who fail to find other jobs and they tend to take out their frustrations on hapless students. Coeducation is frowned upon in higher secondary schools. Researchers say rigid separation of sexes is not the best way to develop personality. It is about time government finds better, more effective ways of charting students' progress.

Saturday August 23 2003 11:50 IST (www.newindpress.com)

 

Beat it: Schools still believe in thrashing out the problem

HYDERABAD: Despite a ban on corporal punishment in schools, most educational institutions continue to practice this outdated means to discipline their wards. Sometimes, the punishment transcends all limits and kids land up in hospitals.

The Education Department in fact issued a GO No 16 (Dated Feb 18, 2002) omitting corporal punishment from the list of disciplinary actions at schools.

However, 74 complaints of corporal punishment and abuse have been registered with the Director of School Education's State Child Rights Cell.

THE HINDU (http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003/06/17/stories/2003061700071000.htm)

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 17, 2003

- Editorials
Ban corporal punishment
 

VIOLENCE AGAINST A child is an unpardonable act. It needs to be condemned outright. Nothing can be more cruel than beating a child, which is often helpless in the face of adult might. And to spank it or cane it in a way that it feels ashamed to face the world is nothing short of barbarism. The case of a 16-year-old boy in Chennai who committed suicide after being thrashed by his schoolmaster underlines a sadistic tendency among a class of people entrusted with the wellbeing and welfare of children. If acts of teachers were to drive their students to death, it merely indicates a serious malaise in our society. It is unfortunate that many schools still have rules permitting corporal punishment. Obviously, many rules in India are misinterpreted to suit personal convenience and prejudice, and the guilty master probably went overboard in trying to discipline a boy. What is even more disturbing is the fact that the school concerned had reportedly pushed at least one more teenager to the precipice some time ago, besides regularly resorting to ugly forms of "detention". All these forms of retribution contravene the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, and acceded to by India in 1992. Article 28 of the Convention provides: "State parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child's human dignity".

Decried by psychologists and social scientists, these incidents of corporal punishment come at a time when India's school system is under severe strain. The syllabus is dominated by a textbook culture, which forces a child to cram for examination grades, rather than help him or her develop as rounded human beings with a fine sense of intelligence and a mind sensitive to the common good of the community and the suffering of a fellow being. In an increasingly fierce global scenario, where competition and consumerism blind men and women to rationality and reason, India's education structure refuses to incorporate imagination and pragmatism. It remains oblivious to the strides education has taken not only in the West but even in relatively newer regions, such as Australia or New Zealand, where course content is largely tailored to suit the interest and aspiration of a youngster.

India's education is handicapped in yet another way: an inadequate number of dedicated teachers. It is true that school-teachers continue to be ill-paid, and, obviously, the profession often attracts the mediocre or those who fail to find other jobs. Even those who are talented and are capable of moulding tomorrow's India soon fall into a rut of poverty and disrespect. The rod comes in handy for them to deal with their own resentment and anger against a society that is callously indifferent to their interests and betterment. The weak and helpless student is thus reduced to a punching bag. Such bodily abuse can affect a boy or a girl for life. Research has revealed that corporal punishment is not merely ineffective, but also makes children defiant, rebellious and hostile. They can develop a warped personality; they can become spouse beaters, molesters, rapists. What is more, they begin to believe that might is right, and that violence is the answer to most problems.