Daily Times

“Adults have not understood children or adolescents and they are, as a consequence, in continuous conflict with them. The remedy is not that adults should gain some new intellectual knowledge or achieve a higher standard of culture. No, they must find a different point of departure. An adult must find within himself the still unknown error that prevents him from seeing the child as he is” — Montessori, The Secret of Childhood, Ch. 2)

Two government teachers allegedly pushed a class-IX girl student from the third floor of the school building in Shahdara, causing her life-threatening injuries. The incident took place at the City District Government Girls School, Kot Shahabdin, Shahdara. Earlier on 7th May 30, 2017 a student of 14 years was tortured in Bahawalnagar and was admitted to hospital with serious injuries.

Pakistan is a signatory to the Convention on Rights of Child along with National and Provincial level legislation for protection of a child prohibition of corporal punishment as per these laws all sorts of corporal punishments are prohibited in all forms of institutions public or private formal or informal.

Frequently our media reports incidents such as the story of the cadet college student, Ahmad Hassan of grade eight is still in our memories who was beaten up so brutally that he was almost paralysed. It clearly exhibits the state of affairs going on in most of our public and some of the private schools and Madaris as well. It also reflects the kind of behaviour of teaching staff towards students in these institutions. Such incidents are common in both rural and urban areas due to many factors if we critically analyse the situation. The teachers usually are a product of the same system where in the name of discipline the gross violation of certain fundamental human rights is justified.

The first step at school or Madrassa is to curb the freedom of expression, individual opinion and introduce humiliation and harassment etc. The result of course will be an individual with the traits transferred to him or her. For the same individual as we said earlier teaching is the last option as a profession in our society. In most of the cases, though we hear about certain incentives at national and provincial level, yet the financial status and survival of a teacher in society still bears a question mark. Despite incentives and initiatives for the teachers, financial frustrations for these teachers remain a major concern as many teachers find it difficult to make both ends meet. Teaching and learning needs a comfortable environment which includes electric supply comfortable seating arrangement and access of the teacher to the students, which is a rare phenomena in schools of remote areas.

The selection criteria for the teaching profession needs to be redefined to ensure that those hired are fully sensitive to the needs of students

The implementation of acts and laws is a rare sight and all sorts of abuse, suppression, humiliation corporal punishment is observed in most of the schools in rural areas. One very important fact to be highlighted is that most cases are not even reported to the parents resulting in drop outs and psychological issues for the students. Unfortunately punishments are carried out in the name of discipline and as the victim of Lahore incident said that she faced punishment after refusal to do a task which wasn’t supposed to be done by her. A very important question arises Why were the students assigned the cleaning as generally in public schools support staff is hired for cleaning and maintenance of school.

We really need to train our teachers on the difference of self discipline and imposed discipline. Imposed discipline is usually short term and results in fear. Self discipline, in contrast, has a long lasting impact on the personality of the learner and the need for corporal punishment is minimal.

Our system of education has a very effective set up with community participation called Parent teacher Council. Earlier known as parent teacher association with a limited scope till it was recognized and network with the name of Parent Teacher Council The PTC comprises of five active parents, one senior school teacher and a retired government employee. The councils are for all levels and at least provide a forum for the collaboration of parent teacher in implementation of systems and procedures administered by schools plus it can keep a check at such cases as well so that the incidents of corporal punishments can be reduced.

The selection criterion needs to be redefined for the individuals opting for the teaching profession so that the one is sensitive towards the needs of students. The administrations at both school and madaris should understand what do we actually mean by Child Protection and they must ensure to minimize the situation where the protection of our future is at risk.

The writer has experience in the field of education and is currently working as a resource person in the development sector