Training to curb corporal punishment in schools

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, October 14, 2007
The education department has come up with a new formula to curb corporal punishment in schools. It has decided to impart on-the-job training to newly recruited teachers on how to tackle disobedient students and improve their quality of performance.
Talking to Hindustan Times, school education minister Partha De said the training would be of great help to teachers who lack experience in handling children. “It is only after a teacher assumes charge that she or he realises how difficult it is to impart knowledge. So, we have decided to introduce a training programme for new teachers,” he said.
Besides arming them with the skill to understand children and tackle unruly ones, the training will also give the newly appointed teachers a minimum of a year’s work experience. Many teachers recruited through the School Service Commission (SSC) examination lack a formal training and the programme on anvil would fill in the gap, feel academics.
Early last month, the minister had summoned representatives of all teachers’ organisations and had asked them to suggest ways so that students could enjoy the hours in school and teachers could abstain from meting out corporal punishment. Most of the organisations, reportedly, urged the minister to introduce the training and orientation programme for new recruits to solve the problem.
For experienced teachers, the school education department plans to incorporate lessons on how to handle adolescent problems, avoid corporal punishment and make classroom learning a joyful experience in orientation programmes organised from time to time. Though the programmes would not be structured, the government would shape lessons in way that would make both experience teachers and new recruits avoid corporal punishment or use of abusive language in class.
The school education department was expected to come up with steps to combat cases of corporal punishment in schools much earlier. On the delay, De said: “We would have had the programme ready by the end of September, but I had to go to the districts to oversee the flood situation. Everything will be finalised within a week.”
Mou.Chakraborty@hindustantimes.com