Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:51 AM
Jun 26, 2014 Letters
DEAR EDITOR,
In recent times we have seen an increase in the abuse of teachers, which is most disgusting, and needs to be addressed. While children face penalties such as suspension, detention and expulsion, there seems to be no change of behaviour. It has become incumbent upon the Ministry of Education to get to the root cause.
I strongly believe that teachers are under immense pressure in keeping up with their curricula, their personal lives, etc. Our teachers are often referred to as “Nation Builders”, which cannot be denied, they often work hard, sometimes with little reward and all of these sometimes add to the pressure and may result in teachers becoming frustrated, angry and losing self-control. Not forgetting the removal of corporal punishment which was once the main tool used by teachers to correct inappropriate behaviours. The removal of corporal punishment from schools seems to cause teachers to feel powerless and a lack of control over students to facilitate discipline.
This leads to teachers having to resort to other methods to curb indisciplined conduct of children in school. What was shocking to me are the treacherous remarks belched out at children if found wanting, at a leading Secondary school on the East Bank of Demerara. At the last parent conference, we were shocked that some teachers call children belittling names and make disparaging remarks – one such was a male teacher saying to a fourteen-year-old student, “don’t smile with me, I don’t go in for li’l girls”. What a nasty and suggestive statement coming from a teacher to a student.
It sickens my stomach to hear that a teacher who should be a second parent to a child would stoop to such lewdness. Another child was hit in his back and had to visit the doctor, while another was told that “his mother wiped his mouth with (you could imagine)”. There are so many more, but only the misdemeanours of children are highlighted, but not those teachers who are found in error.
As a parent I am well aware that not all teachers engage in this kind of misconduct, but there are a few thorns among the wheat. Children feel as though teachers have no love and feelings for them, which may not very well be so, but if teachers continue to create an atmosphere of humiliation, then our children will resent them.
Children are people too, just like adults, and because they are children they are subjected to insults and humiliation. A school should be teacher- and child-friendly, where the rights of both teachers and students are not violated. Apparently teachers have a voice and they can speak out at any time, but children are to be seen and not heard. While we don’t want to raise disrespectful children, we want them to be assertive and enabled to bravely speak out when their rights are being disregarded.
I do not intend to cause any child to feel it is right to disrespect teachers, but if we only punish the children and not address the teachers, then we will be cutting off branches from a tree, while its root remains and the problem is sustained. We do not want our children to be afraid of their teachers, but to respect them. Sadly they are fearful of teachers punishing them, but they do not respect them because of the verbal and psychological abuse meted out to them.
I was once proud that my child was part of this school, when he was awarded a place after writing the National Grade Six Assessment. It now seems a nightmare, as children resent going to this place of learning and academic development.
I wish that the Ministry of Education can look into the issues students and parents are faced with at this Secondary School. It no longer seems to be a school but a boot camp. Every Citizen is a child protector.
Concerned Parent
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