Gone are the days when a teacher's entry into a classroom led to pin-drop silence

New mantra: Spare the rod & spoil the child

 

The no-fail policy under RTE has made kids lawless, complain teachers

 

Gone are the days when a teacher's entry into a classroom led to pin-drop silence and made students look at her with rapt attention. School principals in the city admit that the 'no fail policy' implemented under the Right to Education Act (RTE) has led to a lack of discipline among students. Teachers and principals complain that students have become carefree and don't listen to teachers anymore.

"Post-RTE, parents have become smug and students uncontrollable," said the principal of an ICSE school in Juhu. "They do not listen to the teachers and have grown complacent and indifferent. Under these circumstances, maintaining discipline has become a challenge."

Following the landmark educational Act, classrooms have become noisier, assignment submissions are delayed, back answering and student mischief are on the rise, as the students are no longer afraid of the repercussions. "The children have been given too much freedom, while the teachers have too many restrictions placed on them," said Shubhada Vinekar, principal, IES Manik Vidyamandir, Bandra.

Ritu Puri, a teacher with a convent school in Bandra for 14 years, said that the no-fail clause makes her feel powerless in front of her students. "There was a time when raising our voices could make students listen to us. But now students do what they want, as they know that we can't detain them even if they don't pass the exams."

She added that students no longer complete their work on time and do not concentrate in class. Instead, they talk to their neighbours, pass chits or play games during lectures. The parents, too, have stopped taking the teachers' advice seriously. "Even if we write remarks in the child's calendar, the parents do not come to meet us promptly," she said.

According to Meenakshi Kilpady, principal of Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan School, Malad, the no-fail policy should not extend to students of standard VIII. "Higher secondary students are all the more aware that their actions cannot lead to failure, as the teacher is not as powerful as she used to be. We need to find some other mechanism for dealing with students in that age group," she said. Also, RTE or not, the teachers should revise their skills and learn how to handle such students, she added.