Children should not be subjected to violent punishment to make them disciplined, contrary to the perception of many parents and teachers, said Commissioner-cum-Secretary of School and Mass Education Department Usha Padhee at a State-level consultation workshop on positive parenting and non-violent discipline in school situation.
The workshop was organised here on Saturday by the National Centre for Child Rights (NCCR), a unit of the People’s Cultural Centre (PECUC).
Padhee said corporal punishment adversely affects children’s productive minds instead of making them disciplined. The best way to deal with them and sort out an issue is to understand the kids’ psychology and have a discussion with them in a positive way. “Paradigm shift which means significant changes in the mindset is the need of the hour. We should bring changes in the thoughts of teachers and parents,” she said.
NCCR Chairman Ranjan Kumar Mohanty said that due to heavy pressure and corporal punishment by both teachers and parents, a large number of children are dropping out of schools and finally engaged as labourers. “We must look for an alternative to discipline children,” he suggested.
OPEPA Additional Director (Planning) HK Satpathy said that according to a study conducted by the NCCR for 100 parents in Bhubaneswar and Keonjhar, only 27 per cent of them were informed by their children about the punishment in schools whereas 38 per cent of parents were of the view that punishment is required to discipline children.
State Programme Manager of UNICEF Y Padmavati said the discipline part is more aggressive in private schools than that of the Government. If this process continues, parents would end up having a child with dysfunctional attributes. Teachers, parents and children should sit together for a dialogue on the expectations of the children and the consequences of violent discipline.
Among others, NCCR director Prabir Kumar Patnaik, programme coordinator of TDH (G), eastern region, Deepanwita Biswas, PECUC chairman Adaramani Baral and ED Anuradha Mohanty, assistant professor of Kolkata University Dharitri Ray Chaki and Prof UN Dash of Psychology department of Utkal University also participated in the discussion.
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Secretaries of respective departments were asked to look into the formulation of the project proposals at their level.
Development Commissioner Injeti Srinivas, Additional Chief Revenue & Disaster Management Secretary Taradatt, Forest & Environment Principal Secretary Raj Kumar Sharma, Home Principal Secretary Vipin Kumar Saxena, Water Resource Principal Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, Panchayati Raj Secretary Deoranjan Kumar Singh along with other secretaries and senior officers participated.