Monday, November 8, 2010

INDISCIPLINE AT SCHOOL

School indiscipline has been, over time, an issue of concern for educators and we can even state that it has become a huge concern among educators, policy-makers and the public opinion in general, owing to the outbreak of aggressiveness among peers, violence within teacher-student relationship and vandalism, as well. Indiscipline is a behavioral disorder that is classified as an act of delinquency. Just like, lying, stealing and playing truant or running away from home. It is often the cause of a lot of mental, emotional and also physical damage. Such as damage to property in homes as well as in schools. An undisciplined child is an uncontrollable child and can do just about any damage when he or she does not get whatever he or she wants.

What are the causes of indiscipline in the school?                                                                   
Causes within school; this might include the following,
  1. The teacher taking the lesson is a supply teacher and so is not recognised by the pupils as a figure of authority, because he/she is only temporarily teaching that class. Also the supply teacher may not know the individual names of the pupils.
  2. A teacher is foreign and cannot speak good English - the pupils can use it to their advantage by purposefully misunderstanding the teacher.
  3. The teacher may be late and so the first few minutes of the lesson were spent in an environment devoid of the basic classroom rules. This bad foundation for the lesson makes pupils more prone to rebellious behaviour.
  4. Of course the standard of discipline is likely to go down even further if a lengthy holiday awaits the end of a friday afternoon lesson or indeed awaits the end of a school week.
  5. Poor teaching. Usually a teacher who makes more of an effort to connect with the pupils is more likely to gain their attention. But reading in a monotone from a text book before telling the pupils to get on with some task in their books is just asking for the paper planes to take flight and shouting across the classroom.
  6. Outnumbered. Teaching is a tough job, though not impossibly so. However, sometimes there may simply be too many rebels in the class to keep control.
  7. Amongst higher ability groups, certain pupils may come to the conclusion that they are intellectually superior to the teacher and so taunt him/her, without feeling any incentives to do the work.
  8. Negative relations between pupils. There may also be unwelcome incidents that could occur between pupils at any time, causing tempers to occasionally flare.

Causes outside school; this may possibly include the following:
  1. The parents of pupils may have no interest in education and so this encourages their children to assume a similar attitude, provoking rebellious behaviour.
  2. Pupils may be abused at home. It’s not going to be as easy for a pupil from an unstable background to focus on school work as one from a more secure one.
  3. Pupils may have found that being tough is the way to survive at home, so why shouldn't they think otherwise whenever they turn up to school?
  4. Home life for some might involve being overindulged by parents and so pupils expect the same when they come to school.
  5. Again in the domestic context, pupils may not ever have been set clear boundaries at home and so it’s only natural that they are going to find abiding by a whole set of new rules at school a suffocating prospect which limits their usual freedom immeasurably.

What can or should we do?
If the child is offered practical courses that cater to his requirements, he will have a purpose and therefore less time to indulge in undisciplined behaviour. His restlessness will be curbed, as he will be better occupied.  But until then, it is the duty of the teachers to help the child to cope with the load and to find a workable solution for those children who are breaking under the pressure. The parents too can contribute by spending quality time with the child, and taking a deeper interest in what is happening at school. They should make an effort to meet the teachers and find a solution to make their children's' schooling more productive and satisfying. Once the child realises that his parents are really interested in his welfare he might be willing to meet them halfway, rather than demanding his own way all the time. Children living in problematic families must be counselled by psychologists.


24 comments:

  1. Indiscipline by students is one of the issues which are being tackled nowadays. Some cases had even become the subject of some media bodies. Debates and discussions have been thoroughly carried out. Some children are spoilt too much. Parents tend to give the children all they demand. Thus, as stated in this article, the child can do damages if ever it happens that the parent does not give him/her what he/she asks for. The child becomes stubborn and determined to have everything. But such behavior is not adequate. At school too he/she will tend to be authoritative and thus it will be difficult to maintain discipline with the child. Another factor which can be argued is the fact that both parents work nowadays. They are busy with their work and do not fins much time to inculcate discipline in the child. But this is not done. In order to effectively solve discipline problems, the cooperation of both parents and school is needed. It is important to make the child distinguish between what is good and what is bad. The contrast should be made in front of him/her, so that he/she can become a responsible adolescent afterwards. Many blogs and sites as well are available to help parents facing problems to control their child. Tips about how maintain discipline in class are also shared and discussed among people.

    ReplyDelete
  2. NIVEDITA.
    It is becoming a real problem to see 'bad'children everywhere in several countries, even Mauritius. Indisciple if not cured as such can be very disastrous in the future. We have heard and seen several cases where adolescents of 14- 16 years shoot many people or students in their own school, then afterwards, commit suicide. Why such scenes do occur? Most probably such adolescents have grown up without any discipline, and may be also without any care and love from their parents. It a pity to see such cases. even in Mauritius, there are children who behave badly in schools, even primary school, for example if a teacher have scolded them for some misbehaviour, they damage the car of the teacher.I witnessed a similar case!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gopaul Mardaymootoo
    Indiscipline at school is really becoming a problem. We cannot hold anyone in particular responsible for this but I think one major factor is our fast developing society. Most parents have to work and are not able to give enough time to their children. And our education system is too examination oriented, i.e. the objectives of our academic institution is mainly to produce results that meets the needs of the society instead of individual development. Teenagers of nowadays are carried away by what media projects in front of them. They tend to imitate their idols and behave according to their peer groups. Television and internet tend to project an image of the modern teenager as a “funky”, carefree and independent one. This influences negatively our students.

    Moreover, our legal system does not have any disposition for proper corrective measures for juvenile delinquency. Parents and teachers are compelled by child protection laws and are expected to use passive and peaceful measures to react to children’s noncompliant behaviour. The children tend to take advantage of this weakness to continue with their disobedience.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i really agrees with you,,gone are the days we people were canned and still survived and passed...

      Delete
    2. i really agrees with you,,gone are the days we people were canned and still survived and passed...

      Delete
  4. Indiscipline at schools is one of the issues which are not being tackled in many schools, whether it is at primary or secondary level. There are factors which have been mentioned in the above article. However having said so, it is high time that the number of cases be reduced so that the situation does not become worse. One of the reason why adolescents indulge in indiscipline is that there is a sense of ‘laisser aller’ that is prevailing. Many students who indulge in indiscipline are not being punished. They are simply reprimanded and no concrete action taken. Students are therefore taking it for granted and are repeating their acts again. At school level, it is important that discipline prevails for the smooth running of the school. One of the measures that can be taken is to give these types of students a certain type of punishment, for example sending them in homes to serve old people or making them do some cleaning. This will make them become more conscious and more responsible. It has occurred in my institution that some students have cleaned the toilets because they were hiding there and caught smoking! These students have actually performed well for the exams! There has been a recent case where some students were drunk before they were due to take part in the examinations. It was a very good thing that the supervisor prevented them from taking part in the examinations. The role of parents is also important. However, many parents are not assuming their responsibilities as far as the behavior of their wards outside school hours is concerned. They are not able to control their wards. Thus students have the tendency to behave like they behave at home. Hence it becomes difficult for educators to cope with these types of students. Also it has been mentioned in the blog that a supply teacher is not recognized as an authoritative figure by pupils. Maybe it is the case at primary level, but normally students are not supposed to know about whether the teacher is a supply teacher or not. There are more valid reasons which lead to indiscipline! Just as someone mentioned, the cooperation of the authorities, parents and educators is extremely important. If there is a real cooperation, the problem of indiscipline at school might decrease.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Indiscipline at school has become an international issue. Abroad the problems of indiscpline are more acute than in Mauritius.Scholars say indiscipline escalades when it is not attended to right at the source. Things like lateness should be dealt with severely.If it is tolerated then the sense of indiscipline propagates and manifests in the classroom - it might be too late then.
    But sometimes problem students are responsible for havoc. Disciplinary measures do not work with them. They need psychologist support. The teacher will have to play the psychologist.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The problem of indiscipline at school is really gaining momentum. However, one of the main reasons according to me is MEDIA. The latter is so omnipresent nowadays that all types of crimes are being brought in the spotlight. And with technological advancement and social networking websites, children are getting more and more access to all kinds of information. They tend to get influenced quickly by what they see around them. Some of them really can't make the difference between what's right and wrong.

    Similarly, since both parents need to work to make the two ends meet, they hardly have time to look at their child and lack of communication skills is also an important factor for indiscipline at school. they child is always seeking attention and he has recourse to violence, shouting, disturbing the class to get attention.Or they just log on chat rooms or facebook and seek advice to peers who do not have any experience of life at all. Thus they are misled.

    Likewise, students lack some proper platforms to express themselves. i personally feel that if they properly channeled, the rate of indiscipline will reduce at school. Students should be imparted with the love of learning. But today's kids are more involved with technologies rather than traditional methods like reading books. So teacher's can bring some innovation in learning to make it more interesting. And social networking sites can definitely help in that. Teacher's can have recourse to interactive learning and adopt so many other ways...

    ReplyDelete
  7. INDISCIPLINE IN SCHOOL- Vishal
    It is becoming a real problem to see 'bad'children everywhere in several countries, even Mauritius. Indisciple if not cured as such can be very disastrous in the future. We have heard and seen several cases where adolescents of 14- 16 years shoot many people or students in their own school, then afterwards, commit suicide. Why such scenes do occur? Most probably such adolescents have grown up without any discipline, and may be also without any care and love from their parents. It a pity to see such cases. even in Mauritius, there are children who behave badly in schools, even primary school, for example if a teacher have scolded them for some misbehaviour, they damage the car of the teacher.I witnessed a similar case! As Vishal said, we have so many causes that create indisciplines in our schools, and I think we must find innovative and creative ways to distract 'bad'pupils, for instance we can use social networking sites to get ideas about how to deal with indisciplines at school. Interacting with teachers worldwide will definitely help us to find solutions that will be good for both teachers and pupils.

    ReplyDelete
  8. indiscipline cases are so common among school children they are undoubtedly causes by certain factors such as the school and peer group to mention but few.It should be noted that children are not born with indiscipline behavior, neither could it be hereditary.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Indiscipline at school is really becoming a problem. We cannot hold anyone in particular responsible for this but I think one major factor is our fast developing society. Most parents have to work and are not able to give enough time to their children. And our education system is too examination oriented, i.e. the objectives of our academic institution is mainly to produce results that meets the needs of the society instead of individual development. Teenagers of nowadays are carried away by what media projects in front of them. They tend to imitate their idols and behave according to their peer groups. Television and internet tend to project an image of the modern teenager as a “funky”, carefree and independent one. This influences negatively our students

    ReplyDelete
  10. Discipline has become a real problem in schools these last twenty years. Unfortunately, it seemed to fall in proportion to the recognition of children’s rights. Let’s be clear, there was a need to upgrade children’s rights to the 21st century standards, but unfortunately, the Nationalist government never thought about matching this increase with a radical reform of school discipline.
    Children’s rights correctly eliminated certain types of physical punishment with more humane forms of discipline, but educational discipline was forgotten and this state of affairs remained up till a few months ago with the implementation of the new Educational Framework that does not discuss discipline.
    How can a new Educational Framework be introduced without new forms of discipline to implement it?
    Another problem was the school-leaving certificate that for decades could not be used as a lever to control certain student’s problematic behaviour and is only being reformed now.
    Successive Nationalist administrations fed this mismatch to the extent that the local education system was bereft of any effective way to discipline problem students. Keep in mind that classes also had students with special needs some of whom also displayed problematic behaviors and difficult students with social problems. Coupled to large student populations, this became a real problem.
    The “large school policy” installed by the PN government solely for propaganda reasons goes against educational philosophy and academic research that shows clearly that smaller school populations are easier to handle and provide better access to individual attention the new Framework emphasizes so much.
    The fact known by many teachers that numerous schools have been left in varying states of disrepair clearly shows that the Nationalist government’s emphasis on a “new school every year” was a political ploy aimed to win votes that badly misfired.
    Large schools are more difficult to patrol than smaller ones. They have many more nooks and crannies were students can hide and make mischief. They need many more teachers to supervise them. So lumping all class forms together leads to a greater incidence of bullying especially from higher forms towards younger students. Smaller schools are easier to patrol and need less staff for supervision. Why these advantages were not taken into consideration is a mystery?
    There’s also the problem that although a discipline policy exists, this works according to the whims of the Head of School. If such a head is a disciplinarian, he or she will implement the policy to the fullest extent and use it effectively to keep problematic students in check.
    If a head is soft, discipline usually suffers and many teachers are not given the backing they need to control problematic students in their classes. These are not easy problems to solve and the Nationalist government’s biggest failure is the emphasis on building massive schools rather than delving deep into the myriad of problems that plague our schools and offering solutions that surely cost much less than construction such monstrosities.
    The new two-tiered school-leaving certificate is a start, but in depressed and socially-depraved areas where many children come from broken families and socially challenging situations; more radical solutions are needed.
    The authorities must remember that students attend school for six hours a day and go back home to the social environment they have been raised in. If such an environment is a negative one, all the teacher’s work will be unraveled in a few hours. This means that the discipline problem must also target parents, some of whom are even wilder than their children.
    Fortunately, the new Minister of Education began targeting these problems as soon as he was installed, and this is the way to go. Education in Malta needs action men to move things along and not primadonnas whose only role is to cut ribbons

    ReplyDelete
  11. indiscipline cases in schools has had abig impact to the society too.inadequate parental and teacher guidance and counselling,overindulgence,lack of stimulating environment both in schools and at home are some of the reasons behind this.Governments legal system should allow some measures such as use of a cane so as to curb this menace.Schools also need to have psychologists to frequently attend to this students in times of advice on their ways and mannerism

    ReplyDelete
  12. indiscipline cases in schools has had abig impact to the society too.inadequate parental and teacher guidance and counselling,overindulgence,lack of stimulating environment both in schools and at home are some of the reasons behind this.Governments legal system should allow some measures such as use of a cane so as to curb this menace.Schools also need to have psychologists to frequently attend to this students in times of advice on their ways and mannerism

    ReplyDelete
  13. its true that indiscipline in school is rampantly

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks for shearing this information

    ReplyDelete
  15. I'm truly grateful for this article. This is exactly what I've been looking for. Turkey visa for Mexico is a visa for Mexican people. With this visa all the Mexicans visit Turkey .

    ReplyDelete
  16. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete