Teachers fight larger battle at ‘difficult’ schools

NEW DELHI: Once the Government Boys’ Senior Secondary School at SP Road, Nangloi, identified the troublemakers, they did everything by the book – called parents, made home-visits, struck names off, then reinstated them. The problem with the ‘difficult’ schools though does not end there.
Since Hindi teacher Mukesh Kumar still couldn’t be saved, stunned teachers’ fell back to the old rants — no-detention policy, a notion that lacks ‘samman’ for teachers and policies attempting to keep even ‘problem’ kids enrolled.But teachers at schools in some of the poorest areas, point to a range of other issues warping the system – near-absence of counselling and teacher training, limited freedom to schools to take decisions, scant support from the department, lack of gender sensitisation among teachers and students and moral policing in place of actual education for adolescents.
“The concerns are valid,” said Atishi Marlena, advisor to the education minister. “The larger question of discipline, enforcing it without going over the top, needs attention,” she said.Of Nangloi she said, “This isn’t just a question of indiscipline but crime.” In many schools across the city, there’s a thin line between the two.
Educators handle students who are members of ‘gangs’ outside, take drugs and are violent. The unrest following Kumar’s murder disturbed the hard-won peace at a Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya in Jahangirpuri. On Tuesday, students attacked principal’s car.
“It was parked on school premises. They kicked the side, pelted stones. We called the police,” said principal Sanjay Chawla. He hesitated to file an FIR thinking, “This is my school, these are my children.” “This is a sensitive, crime-prone area. Our kids have every kind of problem – there are criminal gangs, they smoke, take drugs. Till two years ago, they threatened teachers,” said Chawla. He believes no-detention policy has done more harm than good but, in spite of it, has managed to arrest the decline with counselling, anti-addiction campaigns and reaching the community through school management committees.
“Every teacher is also a counsellor but we need training and professional help. Most of our time goes into this,” Chawla said. The government has appointed educational and vocational guidance counsellors (EVGC) but Marlena said there are only 150 for 16 lakh children.
Parents can’t always be counted on. As head of a Boys’ Secondary School in Trilokpuri, Bhagwati Prasad Dhyani said, “Around 20% of my children don’t have fathers. Another 20% would be better off without them.” They are violent, get drunk often and disturb at night.
“Earlier, those living in absolute poverty didn’t admit their kids at all. After the Right to Education Act, there are a large number of students with deep-rooted problems who are getting enrolled. If all solutions have to be provided by schools – if we must serve as reformatories— we must be equipped appropriately,” Dhyani said. “More than guards, you need a counsellor in every school,” Chawla said.
Ram Dutt Bhardwaj, head SBV in Mangolpuri said, “We conduct career counselling for children and parents.” Marlena agreed and said, “By Class XI, these boys discover they don’t have many chances, education is not improving their prospects. That’s why you need good vocational training and career counselling.”
All teachers agreed that the department (DoE) should ease up on individual schools, grant them autonomy to both build trust and discipline students. The near-militaristic control on even activities like school trips hinder, not facilitate, “bonding.”