CHENNAI:‘Duck walk’ and subsequent dehydration may have killed a class 10 boy last week. He died following a prayer meeting at his school in Perambur and CCTV footage from the institution showed latecomers being made to go for a ‘duck walk’ on the playground. The student was later not given appropriate first aid.
Earlier this week, a student from a private university jumped off the terrace as college authorities were about to inform his parents about his malpractice during exams. The increasing trend of student deaths on campus, whether suicides or not, is indicative of hostile conditions in educational institutions. Hostility could mean feeling left out at best and repeated corporal punishment and bullying at worst. Corporal punishments are those intended to cause pain in order to teach a lesson.
The ‘duck walk’ incident goes on to show that inhumane treatment is a pertinent problem even in cities. Corporal punishment is particularly common in schools against children as they do not have a strong defence against the oppressors. Experts believe that such unfavourable conditions will impact students’ lives and personalities for a long time.
Following the incident, the police arrested Arul Lourdusamy, headmaster of Don Bosco Higher Secondary School, Perambur, and physical trainer Jay Singh. However, what punishment did the management receive to use a sports teacher as a goon against children, asks A Narayanan, founder of Change India, a child rights advocacy organisation. “What punishment do teachers, who fail at their duty, receive? What punishment do headmasters get? What punishment do IAS officers get? If they don’t need punishment for failing to do their duty, why are children being punished?” he asks.
Speaking to Express, Pradeep Yadav, principal secretary to the School Education department, said that very little action could be initiated against a school management for corporal punishment at this point. “There are two ways in which we can take action. We can either withdraw grants for the school or de-recognise the management. But both are too severe,” he said, adding that action would, however, be taken against the individual teacher who indulges in harsh punishment.
When asked if action would be taken against the management for authorising the sports teacher to carry out punishments, he said that either of the two actions would be too strong despite the fact that a student died. Recalling a free eye camp his organisation conducted at an Adi Dravidar School, he said that at least a fifth of all children had poor eyesight. “Teachers equated these children to being dumb as they couldn’t read clearly. They ignored the fact that poor eyesight is a result of low nutrition,” he said.
When children are criticised or branded with a negative personality, they normalise it and imbibe it as their baseline personality. “When students are called irregular for coming late, they accept that they are irregular quite quickly. They set standards for themselves really low,” said Siva Jayakumar, District Child Protection Officer of Chennai.
“Children are forced to stick to the system they didn’t choose and they are coerced into falling in line. They have to be counselled instead,” he said, adding counsellors in school must be used to help children work on themselves. “School counsellors are often used as extra class teachers for poor performers or students with learning disabilities. Going to the counsellor is seen more as a punishment for not being good enough,”he said, adding that their confidence level drops drastically in such cases.“Violent punishments to students would let them believe that is the way to treat others. It would create another generation of violent adults,” said Vivian Kapil, a psychiatrist.
Rule book
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which has come into force with effect from 1 April 2010, prohibits ‘physical punishment’ and ‘mental harassment’ under Section 17(1) and makes it a punishable offence under Section 17(2)