Punish the action, not the student

Springdales School, Delhi (CBSE)

“Corporal punishment is medieval and dehumanising. We regularly remind our teachers via circulars that they can lose their jobs and be jailed under the Act of Parliament if they hit a child,” says principal Ameeta Mulla Wattal.

The school has adopted tactics that make students aware of their personal growth. For instance, in journaling, a child writes all the things that he/she should or should not have done during the day and occasionally discusses this with the teacher. Three community counsellors and four behavioural therapists look after students’ well-being. Sometimes, in the very first instance of bad behaviour, parents are summoned. “When parents get involved, the child gets his/her act together. Parents also involve themselves more with the child. If this fails, we conduct house visits, because a home is the first school,” says Wattal. From Class 5 onwards, at the onset of puberty, when problems with a boyfriend/girlfriend have led to indiscipline, a counsellor may hold impromptu sex education workshops. Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) sometimes get hyperactive, disrupt the class and annoy other students because they find it tough to cope. For such a child, special educators assign a buddy so that they feel responsible and worthy.

Vivekanand English High School, Mumbai (SSC)

“We try to hold the child emotionally,” says principal Dr Asha Binukumar about students who break rules. “We give them the lead in peer teaching or ask them to read life stories of role models in class. In this manner, students learn, and like it when teachers give them responsibility.” Dr Binukumar introduced this new system of controlling children a year and a half ago. “The stricter the teacher, the worse the students get. BEd courses don’t stress much on discipline and how each child has a different level of learning. So I invited academics and psychologists to hold sessions with our teachers. There’s been a tremendous change in their approach and we’ve received positive feedback from students and parents.”

The restless ones are made to distribute school materials, conduct activities, and check if everyone’s got their uniforms right and have completed their homework. The talkative ones are asked to maintain class discipline. The naughty ones are moved to the first bench to increase proximity to the teacher, which quietens them. Good behaviour is rewarded with a pat on the back and ‘Student of the week’ title. “We exaggerate the good qualities of a student in front of the class so that he/she feels good.”

The Somaiya School, Mumbai (CBSE)

The school uses a ‘positive discipline model’ wherein an unruly student is put through “behaviour modification”. In the first week of the new academic year, teachers and students mutually form rules for good and bad behaviour. “Students become more responsible because their opinions are considered,” says principal Parveen Shaikh.

In kindergarten, at the start of every day, the student’s name is tagged on a smiley green face chart. If the children break any rules, the pin progressively moves onto a sad face before ending at a crying red face.

Another behaviour management strategy is a system of cards: a blue card is issued as a first warning for poor behavior, a yellow card serves as a second warning with a note to parents, and if a red card is issued, the child is either sent home, suspended from physical education class for a week, held back for half an hour to complete school work or to make posters and presentations, or conduct an assembly on the subject of bullying. A repeat offender has to teach the lower grades a new topic. A child who verbally abuses a classmate has to write 10 good qualities about the aggrieved child and read it to the class. The noisy ones have to write a letter of apology to the teacher. Well-behaved students are made an example of. For good behaviour, a student gets a green card, and the student and class with maximum green cards wins a trophy at the end of the year.

Utpal Shanghvi Global School, Mumbai (IGCSE)

“Punishing or just putting a remark in the calendar does not solve a problem,” says CEO Abha Dharampal. “We use a diagnostic approach — the five-whys technique to nip bad behaviour in the bud before it escalates. Why did a student hit a classmate or another student? Perhaps, the class was left unmonitored.”

The in-house counsellor does a root analysis for defaulters’ behaviour. For instance, in the pre-primary section, a child was pushed, fell down and got hit on the brow. “The child who did the pushing was shown the CCTV video and told that because of his action, another child got hurt. He was made to say sorry and hug the child. We also counselled the parents of the student who got hurt because they were upset,” says Dharmapal. “Teachers are told to not humiliate or scold students in front of the entire class, but to make them stay back after school and inform the parents about a problem.”