By Ravinder Singh
Radha Nambiar of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, in blaming over-protection of children for stifling the development of critical thinking, lamented that “by the time the teacher calms the class down, he or she will have only 20 to 25 minutes of proper teaching.”
This is a strong indictment of the deplorable state of discipline in our schools. Yet no one seems to realise that we have a disaster on our hands.
Can anyone in the Education Ministry explain why it must take 10 to 15 minutes for a teacher to “calm the class down” before starting a lesson?
Just what is going on in the classes that needs “calming down”? Are the children running around? Are they yelling and screaming? Are they quarrelling or fighting? Why are the school heads not being held responsible? When children are in the kind of mental state to misbehave, can they be truly “calmed down” even after 10 to 15 minutes?
The situation Radha Nambiar speaks about has been going on for decades and has caused tremendous damage to children, to schools and to society itself.
One can cite many examples of once-stellar schools in the country that have gone down the drain because of the failure to control indiscipline, but let’s take one: SRK Tunku Abdul Halim of Alor Setar. In the 50s and 60s, it was reputed to be among the best in the country and the Sultan of Kedah used to grace its annual prize-giving day. By the late 80’s, it had practically gone down to the bottom of the list, and the Sultan shunned it.
How did this shameful state of affairs come about? Rather, the question should be: How could this not have happened when teachers had to take the entire school day to try to calm the children down?
This was a single-session boys’ school with an enrolment of about 700 in the late 80s. The boys used to walk about freely, leaving the classrooms as and when they liked and without their teachers’ permission. They used to jump on the desks or from desk to desk when the teachers turned their backs to write on the board. The teachers had to shout above the noise to try to calm things down, often to no avail.
The rotting of SRK Tunku Abdul Halim was the result of a failure to nip indiscipline in the bud. Who should have done this if not the school heads?
The Kedah Education Department apparently did nothing too, although it must have been aware of the falling performance of the school.
Today, the school has become co-educational. It has only about 150 pupils although the building used to accommodate 700 boys in a single session. It has been suggested that the enrolment has dropped because parents have moved their children to new schools nearer their homes. If the school had maintained the excellence it was famous for in the 50s and 60s, distance would not be a hindrance. Parents would be fighting to get their children enrolled in it.
Unless the cancer of indiscipline in our schools is stamped out with a firm hand, “visions” and “missions” of teaching this and that, of creating such and such a type of society, will remain mere dreams.
Can any psychologist state categorically that those who leave school after a decade of undisciplined behaviour will suddenly turn into good, law-abiding citizens?
The authorities should stop denying that criminal behaviour in adult life can be traced to indiscipline in childhood.
For a start, the Ministry of Education should ensure that teachers don’t have to spend 10 to 15 minutes of each lesson just to calm down the classes. This is plainly unacceptable and was never necessary during the 50’s and 60’s.
Ravinder Singh is an FMT reader.
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