Time to teach the teacher to teach without the rod
Published On: 10th July 2010
By K Rasheeduddin Suicide by a student of La Martiniere for Boys in Kolkata, Rouvanjit Rawla has once again brought incidences of corporal punishment in schools into sharp focus. Rouvanjit was allegedly caned and humiliated by the principal of the school.
Rouvanjit’s father Ajay Rawla filed a police complaint against, Sunirmal Chakravarthy, the principal who confessed to caning of the Class VIII student, but refused to link it with the suicide.
The Kolkata case is not one of its kinds. Such incidents have become a recurring phenomenon in the country. In recent years we have witnessed several fatalities resulting out of corporal punishment being meted out to students. In 2002, Jagroop Singh, a 15-year-old Class X student in Ludhiana succumbed to his injuries sustained during a severe beating by his teacher. In yet another case in 2007, a Class XII student, Arpit Kavadia of Udaipur died of his injuries after he was severely beaten a teacher. In both cases the police registered FIRs and booked the teachers for murder under section 302 of the IPC.
Corporal punishment is rampant in schools, but they generally do not draw the attention of the masses unless it results in serious injury or fatality. While in some cases students have lost their valuable lives to the corporal punishment, in others, it left in them traumatized and scarred with low self esteem. Yet the schools seem to be coy to ban the primitive practice.
Most schools pass this barbaric practice off as part of teaching methodology. There was a time when people, even parents of the students believed in the spurious logic stemming from the maxim: ‘Spare the rod and spoil the brat’. However, researches on effects of corporal punishment on the child have proved otherwise.
Studies on child psychology suggest that corporal punishment does no good to a student. On the contrary, rather than motivating the student to concentrate on studies, it develops a deep sense of revulsion towards academics within the child. After undergoing humiliation in a classroom full of fellow students chances are the student will lose self esteem. He will try to find escape routes to avoid the recurring humiliation. There are cases of dropout with direct link on corporal punishment.
In modern society there is no room for this atrocious practice of corporal punishment. When teachers are being given psychological training to motivate students towards academics, it leaves no room for physical punishment, which in any case has proven to have detrimental effects on the student. Only those teachers who fail to motivate their students through proper understanding and affection resort to the dubious means to teach them.
Only stringent laws and their strict implementation to ban the practice of corporal punishment will prove to be a deterrent to delinquent teachers. We as a society cannot afford to lose any more Jagroop Singh, Arpit Kavadia or Rouvanjit Rawla.( source Education master)
By K Rasheeduddin Suicide by a student of La Martiniere for Boys in Kolkata, Rouvanjit Rawla has once again brought incidences of corporal punishment in schools into sharp focus. Rouvanjit was allegedly caned and humiliated by the principal of the school. Rouvanjit’s father Ajay Rawla filed a police complaint against, Sunirmal Chakravarthy, the principal who confessed to caning of the Class VIII student, but refused to link it with the suicide.
The Kolkata case is not one of its kinds. Such incidents have become a recurring phenomenon in the country. In recent years we have witnessed several fatalities resulting out of corporal punishment being meted out to students. In 2002, Jagroop Singh, a 15-year-old Class X student in Ludhiana succumbed to his injuries sustained during a severe beating by his teacher. In yet another case in 2007, a Class XII student, Arpit Kavadia of Udaipur died of his injuries after he was severely beaten a teacher. In both cases the police registered FIRs and booked the teachers for murder under section 302 of the IPC.
Corporal punishment is rampant in schools, but they generally do not draw the attention of the masses unless it results in serious injury or fatality. While in some cases students have lost their valuable lives to the corporal punishment, in others, it left in them traumatized and scarred with low self esteem. Yet the schools seem to be coy to ban the primitive practice.
Most schools pass this barbaric practice off as part of teaching methodology. There was a time when people, even parents of the students believed in the spurious logic stemming from the maxim: ‘Spare the rod and spoil the brat’. However, researches on effects of corporal punishment on the child have proved otherwise.
Studies on child psychology suggest that corporal punishment does no good to a student. On the contrary, rather than motivating the student to concentrate on studies, it develops a deep sense of revulsion towards academics within the child. After undergoing humiliation in a classroom full of fellow students chances are the student will lose self esteem. He will try to find escape routes to avoid the recurring humiliation. There are cases of dropout with direct link on corporal punishment.
In modern society there is no room for this atrocious practice of corporal punishment. When teachers are being given psychological training to motivate students towards academics, it leaves no room for physical punishment, which in any case has proven to have detrimental effects on the student. Only those teachers who fail to motivate their students through proper understanding and affection resort to the dubious means to teach them.
Only stringent laws and their strict implementation to ban the practice of corporal punishment will prove to be a deterrent to delinquent teachers. We as a society cannot afford to lose any more Jagroop Singh, Arpit Kavadia or Rouvanjit Rawla.( source Education master)
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