Shanno and some burning issues.

The whole of India shuddered on Apr 17, 2009 upon the death of a 11 year old girl named Shanno in Delhi. She was a student of a Municipal Corporation-run school in a place called Bawana in Outer Delhi. Her class teacher subjected her to corporal punishment which made her stand in an awkward posture for over two hours under the hot sun and even placed seven bricks on her back. She fell unconscious after she returned from school and died in hospital the next day.

An unpardonable crime, by any stretch of the imagination. Teachers have absolutely no right to inflict such sadistic punishments for whatever reason they may have and that teacher should be tried for homicide. Not only the magnitude of punishment, but the severe humiliation inflicted should clinch the deal in front of any court of law. Such incidents should not be seen in isolation, but they are the grim reminders of the transition phase our education sector is going through. People now expect more from teachers and demand miracles from them. It is clear that the poverty line is getting lower and lower and more and more people are getting above it. (Whatever the leftists may say). Though hardly above subsistence levels, the sole investment these people have is their children - human capital - we may say. People straightaway enroll them in posh schools and expect them to do wonders, or ask the teachers to make them do wonders. Teachers, in turn, find no other way to wield the stick always, to make the hapless students perform better so that their parents are satisfied and the school is profitably conducted through its business.

In view of Shanno’s unfortunate incident, two arguments have come up.

1. Avoid corporal punishment altogether.

2. Collect medical records of students and keep them at school at the time of admission.

To an impartial observer, the solutions will create more problems than they try to solve! Avoiding corporal punishment will only make the schools ineffective institutions and the inducements in children will naturally turn to more outwardly benign measures like increasing mental torture, which will mar the prospects of the child in the future. We should remember that “Spare the rod and spoil the child” is a piece of golden wisdom. Children must be given corporal punishment, if required, both at home and at school. Even my 9 year old daughter who not infrequently get corporal punishment at school agrees 100% with me on this issue! Students should be beaten if the situation demands it, she says! I think that it settles the issue. You ask children and reach a decision. They don’t want to abolish corporal punishment. Period.

Collecting medical records are equally senseless. Parents of disease prone children should communicate that to the school authorities, but keeping medical records is not an option. Who will ensure the confidentiality of the documents? A society in which personal information such as medical records are public property may find the proposal appealing at first, but do we want to live in such a society? In future, employers may steal the information from schools of their prospective employees! Insurance companies are another lot who will happily jump on the data. Unnecessary hassles will only make the school administration more difficult.