Schools forced to think outside the box

‘It’s better to be friends with your students’.

LAHORE: School administrations have enforced different strategies, with varying degrees of success, to control the misbehaviour of teenagers at their institutions.

Hafiz Usman, branch-in-charge of Lahore Grammar School (LGS), Johar Town said that when a students acts out in class or on the field the teacher in charge disciplines her. “The most we can do is ask the student to leave the class or call their parents in for a meeting. If the problem persists, we expel the student. We don’t, however, expel any students over academic performance,” he added.

Lahore College of Arts & Sciences has come up with a novel way of dealing with its students’ disciplinary problems. Discipline committees have been formed with student members. The idea being that peers can better understand the problems and come up with effective long term solutions.

Dr Naheed Malik, an educationist, pointed an accusing finger at the media.

“The media has been the basic problem. Certainly, youth today have a broad knowledge of the world around them. However, they are also more rude and stubborn.” Malik said that western and Indian media “has given fresh minds new ways to cheat the system.” She added, “Sometimes I have heard such language that I have been shocked into silence.”

Gone are the days when stiff corporal punishment was meted out to students who dared disobey their teachers or flout school rules. Schools in Lahore now have strict regulations about the kinds of punishment permissible for disobedient students. Teachers can no longer physically punish students.

Usman said, “Physical punishment makes a child retaliate. Behavourial problems are common in teens but they have to be dealt with carefully.”

The most common complaint voiced was that students are rude towards teachers who are mostly helpless. Many schools including Keynesian Institute of Management and Sciences (KIMS), Resource Academia, Salamat International Campus for Advanced Studies and Lahore Learning Campus have developed the system of detention to deal with misbehaviour.

Beaconhouse School System student Najya Kamal said, “Sometimes it seems we get called for nothing. Older students should get the same treatment as we do.”

LGS student Ahmad Jaleel shared his perspective. “Mostly students who excel academically are chosen to be monitors and prefects. But academic excellence does not amount to crowd control skills. These goody-two-shoes just serve to amuse us.”

Teachers still have a measure of control in the classroom. They, however, also need to have patience and tolerance in abundance. Faisal Hanif, a teacher at KIMS, said, “You can’t really use old school ways of disciplining students. It’s better to have a friendship with your students rather than insulting or punishing them.” He said that being friendly with students can be more productive in the long run and is a superior way of maintaining control.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2011.