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There is little doubt that the discipline of students is appalling, particularly in Malé schools. According to a student source who wants to remain anonymous, his classmates in a famous school in the capital often take mineral water bottles filled with Vodka for drinking and selling during the interval. Smoking and selling cigarettes and supari are also widespread.
Many parents believe the problem is at least partially due to the negative influence of a few wayward students, and these 'bad apples' should be removed to save the remaining apples in the barrel. However, Education Ministry and educationalists have steadfastly refused to expel any students except in very rare instances. This is a protracted controversy with strong arguments on both sides.
A typical argument could go like this, "As a young person in the mid twenties and a teacher, I feel that the influence of any drug on pupil learning and behavior is bound to be detrimental and if left unpunished then others will follow suit."
A counter argument could go, "Expelling pupils leads to social exclusion and increases the likelihood of crime becoming a way of life, rather than just teenage misdemeanor."
And … "I would go further; they should be sent to borstal. Our attitudes to bad behavior have been far too tolerant. This would be quite a lenient sentence to many of us and a real deterrent. Let's restore some modicum of law and order rather than the liberal instigated persecution of decent ordinary people. Society must have deterrents to protect the decent law abiding majority."
… "Of course children should be expelled from school if they are known to have drugs. They are a bad influence on other children and parents have a right to know that their child will be protected from drugs, the same as they should be protected from guns or knives. The over-riding factor is very clear, drugs ruin lives. I believe that the message of teachers/heads should be explicitly clear, bring drugs into my school and you're out!"
With increasing juvenile violence in Malé streets, discipline is no longer a mere school issue. It is rather a national issue. The question is, will expelling the bad students from school improve school discipline or will it merely lead to the expelled students becoming street thugs?
6 comments:
Thank You Mr. Waheed, for your concern on this very important yet ignored issue.
I myself been a teacher, will not hesitate even a second to say that the discipline problem that we are faced now is nothing more than carelessness.
The student discipline no longer is an issue of capital male'. Its wide spread around the nation.
There are reason for.
1. The students know their "right"- no matter what we do, we can not be terminated.
2. Punishments have been taught to students as a crime from both the government and the media. If you punish, your a criminal and an enemy of students even if you be the students parent or teacher. No one is explaining the difference between punishment and harm.
3. The government WAS and IS not ready to take any action to bring this problem to an end. Politics seems to be more important than the future of the nation.
4. There is no one ready to take responsibility. Teachers blame parents and ministry. Ministry blames teachers and parent, and of cause parents blame teachers and ministry.
In the end, I'd say terminating students should in every mean be the last option. Its very certain and everyone seems to agree on that.
WHY ON EARTH IS NO ONE READY TO ACCEPT THAT THE TIME FOR THAT VERY DIFFICULT YET UNAVOIDABLE ACTION HAS COME. How many more batches of students are we going to sacrifice with testing our new democratic schools?
(sorry for making my comment a bit long. I just feels this is a very important topic)
Collective rights of the community over ride that of an ill disciplined student.
Alif Laam Gaaf (a teacher) and many others in the profession beleive children's "rights" is a serious reason for behaviour problems. But those from the children's rights sector keep on saying they are ill-informed. So how to decide who is informed and who is ill-informed?
So how to decide who is informed and who is ill-informed?
Good question. I myself been a teacher is no reason for me to be biased in what I say.
It is both. Neither the teachers nor the students are informed well. Problem is very simple. Everyone in our society keeps on talking about rights. The problem is that no one seems to bother of the second "R"!!!
In our country R= Rights
What about R= Responsibility.
What about bad girls. They are worse. Boys will atleast be boys.
And what about bad teachers . They sell drugs to their pupils and have sex with them. So there. Next you will say expel bad teachers. Then with no pupils and no teachers there will not be any schools. or at least no bad schools.
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