Discipline begins at home. Why blame schools?

In her quest to find out what happens behind closed classroom doors, Anjali Thomas went to St Stanislaus School in Bandra and met principal Father Jude Fernandes and members of his faculty

Father Jude Fernandes, principal; Philomena Perriera, supervisor; Alice Carvalho, vice-principal; Brother Felix D’Souza, teacher; May Rose D’souza, headmistress of the primary section.   

Father Jude: Corporal punishment has become a sensitive issue. Before we address it, let’s look at the kinds of schools that exist. There are municipal schools, IB schools where there are less than 20 students in a class, ICSE and CBSE private schools, and public ones such as St Stanislaus, where one teacher has to manage a class of 60-70 boys.

Alice Carvalho: And don’t forget, teachers get paid as little as Rs4,000 per month and are hired on a three-year contract basis.

Philomena Perriera: The ideal way to address this would be to reduce the number of children in the classroom.

Father Jude: This is a grassroots problem, one that has to be addressed by the government. The parents who send their children to St Stanislaus are well-educated and well-travelled. They expect the same quality of sensitivity and teaching as they see in schools abroad without taking into account the constraints that a government-aided school faces. One solution to this would be to have parents participate proactively with the school in instilling discipline, sensitivity and values.

Philomena Perriera: But society today is not a secure one — there is violence everywhere, in the media, in the games the children play, in the programmes they watch on TV.

Father Jude: In a classroom, it is easy to pin down one underpaid teacher, without looking at other factors. In my opinion, the school is an oasis in an otherwise violent and insecure world. Parents expect the child to be at their best behaviour at home and at school. They cannot accept the fact that their child is undisciplined in school.

Philomena Perriera: Before going to the Press, the parents should approach the teacher concerned and the principal. That’s where a strong Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) comes into play. These media reports are igniting other parents and students to respond in a similar manner.

Brother Felix: In the absence of the parents, it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure that the children are not only taught academics, but also the values that will make them better people. Corporal punishment is not the answer, though.

Father Jude: Let’s look at a common situation: a bunch of boys are involved in a fist-fight. The teacher walks in to find the class in chaos. She smacks the boys involved. Is that corporal punishment? When a parent smacks a child, does the media report about it?

Alice Carvalho: What about parents brutally hitting and belting their children? I have students who come crying to me, and it breaks my heart.

May Rose D’souza: Is there a system in place to redress this? Can we take the parents to the court? Should we call the media and tell them of the horror stories we’ve heard? At times I think the parents need counselling more than the children. We are powerless to do anything.

Philomena Perriera: There are times when parents don’t know how to handle their child. They come to us and say: “I wash my hands off my child. I don’t know what to do.” Then no amount of counselling will help.

Father Jude: So coming back to the problem of corporal punishment, how does a school like St Stanislaus deal with it? We’ve instituted a diary system, where the class teacher notes down her observations on all her students: those who are unruly, the loners, and so on. We get an idea of who needs extra help or counselling, and act accordingly.

At that point, the school bell rang, the teachers returned to their classrooms.