Last week certain incidents related to school children were reported in the mainstream media and some of those incidents received a lot of publicity on social media. But unfortunately, we, the ordinary people of this country do not know whether to laugh or cry after witnessing those destructive incidents. Worrying will never take us anywhere. We cannot reverse social change, but we can do what we can.
No wonder we are living in the 21st Century and the current society is very different from the society that existed several decades ago. Everything in the world has changed during the past several decades and it is the same with Sri Lankan society. But we cannot be happy at all about certain changes that have taken place in the lives of schoolchildren in this country during the past few decades. Children are the future of this country. If they become criminals, there will be no future for this country. Since it is happening at the moment, we have to take this issue very seriously.
Last week the media reported how a Year Nine student from the Chilaw area brought a bottle of whisky to his school to share with friends and have fun. According to the incident, this student had brought a small bottle of whisky in his bag to school and was caught by the school prefects. When questioned, the student had told the school authorities that he poured some whisky from a big bottle that his father brought home and took it to the school to share with friends and enjoy!.
Punishing children
Maybe he thinks it is not something serious. Maybe this is not his first time. Maybe he is not scared of any possible punishments. What on earth made him think like that? Unfortunately maybe some readers will also think that this is not something serious! But it is serious because alcoholics are already pushing this country backwards.
According to the second incident reported in the media last week, a schoolboy in Year 11 from the Matale area had been hospitalized after four schoolboys in Year 13 brutally attacked him for not paying ransom to them and informing about the incident to the school Principal. The most pathetic part is the very light punishment given by the school Principal to the five students who took ransom. The lightness of the punishment can be witnessed when they went and attacked the student who did not pay ransom and informed the school Principal just after one hour of punishing them and releasing them without taking any serious action against them.
If fathers openly consume alcohol in front of their children, those children tend to think that it is not something bad or abnormal. If those fathers tell their children not to take alcohol, it is similar to the crab telling its zoea (baby crabs) to walk straight. Preaching is useless without setting an example. But present day parents are only preaching and they are not setting any positive examples. Instead they set plenty of bad examples!
It is the parents who discipline their children before school teachers. But now it seems the parents have handed over this task to school teachers and expect school teachers to discipline their children. It is not realistic because the child is being disciplined by school teachers at school from 7.30 am to 1.30 pm and after that the child is in a free world exposed to all nasty things such as alcohol, drug use, violence, pornographic films etc. Sometimes parents are fully aware that the children resort to this type of behaviour but don’t seem to bother at all. This is such a sad situation which is not practical at all.
Taking ransom inside schools is a very serious offence and a very dangerous trend. It is the ‘children’ in Year 13 who become adults in a few days or months who are resorting to taking ransom. School Principals should act in a more serious manner for such offences because this is the initial stage of breeding criminals in this country. They get the ‘training’ at school and start resorting to crime once they leave school at the age of 18. By then they are not scared of the law or any punishments.
Lack of attention
When talking about present day schoolchildren in Sri Lanka, it is obvious that their actions and mannerisms are much different to the schoolchildren of yesteryear. A few decades ago most of the schoolchildren were scared of their parents and especially their teachers. Rarely, did a child resort to a serious offence. The punishments for such offences were also serious such as getting sacked from school. They would have been deprived of their school leaving certificate which will not allow child to enter any other school. But today it is not so. Everything is taken very lightly ignoring the fact that it violates the rights of all other innocent schoolchildren who just want to study.
Present day parents should be more vigilant of their children’s activities, but unfortunately, they are more vigilant on all the other things except their children. They never punish their children but they punish other people's children for the offences committed by their children. Those parents are not afraid to challenge any teacher who punishes their children. Therefore, most of the school teachers just ignore all the offences committed by schoolchildren no matter how serious they are. This is the current situation of Sri Lankan society.
The bitter truth in Sri Lanka is the middle class parents treat their children as toddlers even after they get married and parents become grandparents. On the other hand some young parents just neglect their children due to various reasons such as poverty, drug addiction, underage marriages (due to becoming parents when they themselves are children under the age of 18 or 21) etc. Anyway, parents are not doing their duties towards children.
On the other hand, present day school teachers are very irresponsible when compared to their counterparts a few decades ago. Not like the early days the young female school teachers of today never come to school in decent attire. They keep unnecessarily close contacts with children or keep unnecessarily distant contacts with children. Teaching has become another job and not a service like it was in the early days.
Positive measures
It is good that the Education authorities are now taking certain positive steps such as checking the school bags of schoolchildren before they enter the school in the morning. But these steps are not adequate at all when comparing with various grave issues that exist in present day schools.
It is high time that the education authorities pay their attention towards introducing specific punishments for specific grave offences such as selling of illicit drugs, using illicit drugs, taking ransom, sexually abusing other schoolchildren by schoolchildren etc. The educational authorities cannot wait any longer without doing this because some state schools have already been dominated by the underworld and drug kingpins. The education authorities can simply issue a Special Circular covering both National Schools and Provincial Schools stating the specific punishment for the specific grave offence.
If there is a common system of punishment for the culprits meted out in the country, no parent can raise their voices against punishing schoolchildren when they violate the rights of the other schoolchildren. It is impossible to address these issues without having a proper practical system.
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