Human Rights monitor
Child Rights in Education
Cruel behaviour leads to school dropout
Laila Noor
Students stop attending a school in Barisal for punishing a female schoolmate by stripping her naked,' reads a headline in a national daily. This news must have caused panic among many guardians of school going children. Undoubtedly, they will be worried sick for the safety of their loving kids.
Punishing children in the name of disciplining is too common in Bangladesh. For instance, Russell, a nine-year-old boy from a remote village in Comilla, is ready to work hard with his father on the field for all day long. But, he would not go to school because he is weak in mathematics. The math teacher beats up students for any mistakes. Russell's mother simply could not manage to persuade her son to go to school. His elder brother Kawser, 14, does not want to attend school as well for fear of being caned and other forms of punishment at school.
But, Russell's classmate Javed gladly goes to school everyday. Although, he too is weak in mathematics, the teacher would not beat him up because the teacher tutors Javed privately. So, Javed gets the pass mark anyway.
The picture is quite different at a private primary school in the neibouring village. Zakir Hossain, 8, a boy from a very poor family, happily attends school regularly. He is happy because caning is forbidden at his school. “Ours is a needy family. Despite this, I have to allow my son to attend school because Zakir is ready to starve, but not to miss school. He has a wonderful time at school,” says Zakir's mother Sufia Khatun.
Many more children like Russell and Kawser do not want to go to school for fear of punishment and humiliation. As a result, a significant number of students drop out every year. Many experts identify corporal punishment as one of the main reasons behind the huge dropout.
Hanufa Begum, mother of dropout children Shahida, 13, and Sharmin, resentfully says, “My daughters have to work outside to support the family. Therefore, they are always late to get to school and they have to endure various punishments. The teachers cane them if they don't prepare lessons or if they play with their mates. So, they don't want to go to school.”
Commenting on this, Zakir's class teacher Mansura Akhter says, “The odious act of punishing children has become a common practice in our country. There is hardly any school in villages where you will not find a couple of ill-tempered teachers. These guys beat up children for no valid reason. But, they should accept the fact that kids are naughty.” Unfortunately, this sad reality of the student life of children in Bangladesh has been going on for ages although things have changed around the globe. The UN charter on children's right has been formulated for ensuring their rights. And, from September 2, 1991, implementation of this charter has been made compulsory in Bangladesh.
Clause 37 of the charter states that no child will be subjected to torture, punishment and any cruel or inhuman or humiliating behaviour. But, the reality in Bangladesh, a signatory to this charter, is not unknown. Here, children's rights are often violated.
In 2005, Dipu, a student of capital's Nayatola Government Primary School, died due to barbaric torture of a teacher. Azizur Rahman, project director of children protection unit of Unicef, says, “Many of the dropout children don't come to school due to the corporal punishment. It is absolutely improper to punish children. If punished, children feel insecure at schools resulting in huge dropout. Children at schools of remote areas are tortured quite regularly and most of them go unreported. Whenever an incident takes place we talk about it for a few days and then forget. We have to take measures to put an end to this bad practice.”
About teacher-student relations in childhood, Amir Hossan Khan, an assistant director of Bangladesh Shishu Academy, says, “Childhood is a very important time. Subject to an enabling environment in childhood, children could be grown up as good citizens in the future. In this regard, teacher-student good relation is very vital indeed. Avoiding both physical and psychological punishments, every teacher should help children fulfill their dreams through love and care. A teacher should express himself in a way so that students consider him safe.”
About the adverse impact of punishment, Dr Mohit Kamal, an associate professor of National Mental Health Institute and Hospital, says, “All the children are not equally good in learning. In this case, a teacher should understand the psychology of a student and help him/her accordingly. The trained teachers know this very well. A teacher should realise that a student can't be made to perform by pressure. Such an environment should be created so that the students learn spontaneously.”
He feels, “Home or school wherever it might be, it is not right to punish children. A child will have to be made interested in learning. And, this has to be done by helping him, not by punishing. Disciplining rather causes adverse effects. They get scared and lose interest in learning. An escaping tendency grows in them. So, children should be taught in a friendly fashion." Ibrahim Sobhan, a pioneer of school-based education system, says, “School is the right place of learning. The learners don't want to come to schools if they are not taught in an enjoyable manner. If the environment is not enjoyable, the creativity of children will not flourish. To ensure an enjoyable learning atmosphere for students, friendly behaviour is a must.”
About punishing children, a teacher of a remote village, known for his anger, says, “There're only two teachers in our school. And, two of us have to teach about 350 students. Besides, we've to do the official works. We feel tremendous pressure in doing all these things. Therefore, being annoyed, we punish the children if they do not learn their lessons or make noises. We do know it's not right to cane children. But, we've to do that because of the situation.” Most of the teachers do not support corporal punishment. Selina Akhter, the head teacher of Tejgaon Farm Government Primary School, says, “Neither physical nor psychological punishment plays any positive role in a learner's education. The children who receive the love and care of teachers become good citizens in the future.”
Ethnic Community Organisation, an NGO in Sylhet, is working to check the dropout of children from primary schools. Its executive director Laxmikanta Singh says, “We simply don't know the statistics as to how many children lose enthusiasm, fail and even drop out due to punishment in the name of disciplining. In addition to the existing one, a separate law should be enacted with provisions for more stringent punishment for those teachers who punish children inhumanly.”
Initiatives are underway both at government and private levels to check dropout. The Finance Adviser, in his budget speech (2007-08), said that works were going on in 11,000 education centres to get the dropout students back to schools. He also said 10,000 teachers would be provided training next year in this regard. About punishment at schools, Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed, the founder of Biswa Sahitya Kendra, says, “Teachers in our country face different types of problem. Their problems need to be resolved. Besides, the processes of making good teachers will have to be applied. We have to keep in mind that torturing children means torturing the future. So, it should be stopped.”
Many believe that in order to stop corporal punishment our attitudes towards children need to be changed. Educationists say to stop punishing children first the reasons will have to be detected and efforts to be made to correct those. While recruiting teachers, talent should not be the only criterion for evaluation. Rather, it will have to be seen whether they have the qualities like patience and enthusiasm to be good teachers. Besides, everybody involved in child education should be made aware of the negative aspects of corporal punishment. It is also essential to exercise and apply the laws and conventions relating to child rights. And to do that, along with the government and private initiatives, people from all walks of life will have to be conscious about it.
Source: News Network
