Recently, there were reports in the media of teachers being physically assaulted in two primary schools and verbally threatened in a secondary school.  The primaries were Graham’s Hall and St. Angela’s and the secondary was Queen’s College.  The staff of the three schools immediately decided to act in solidarity with the allegedly hurt teachers and the Guyana Teachers Association recommended its members wear black clothing in sympathy with them.  And the Chief Education Officer, after the St. Angela’s incident, added his condemnation: “Whatever the circumstances”, said the CEO, “it is a reprehensible and ghastly act.  It is unacceptable and will not be condoned in the least…when parents and guardians are engaged in violent acts against teachers, it goes against established values, norms, and expectations. The Ministry will take all appropriate actions to ensure teachers continue to work in a safe, secure environment including prohibiting violent parents and guardians from having access to school premises;   transferring any pupil whose parents commit any act of violence on a teacher; or any other sanction deemed necessary while encouraging the police or any other institution or authority to take whatever action the law prescribes.”

In all these incidents, the positions and feelings of all the main actors should be taken into account and considered to arrive at a balanced view.  In these incidents, the positions and feelings of the main actors, who are the teacher, the headmaster/mistress of the school, the pupil, and the parents were not taken into account before knee-jerk condemnations were made.  In the case of the Queen’s College incident, judging from the media reports, it is clear that the teacher involved failed to exercise disciplinary measures professionally and this allowed a routine school incident to be blown out of proportion with all the actors involved, against their will, drawn into a whirlpool of discord.

A misbehaving student should never be ostracised or ignored; every trained teacher knows this.  Small children and adolescents often have many anxieties, have no one to whom to turn to, and are helpless in the adult world.  Parents and guardians are usually insensitive to their children’s sufferings and in many working-class families, children are needlessly beaten, neglected, and not socialised resulting in many students doing poorly in academic work and being rebellious.  A professional teacher would recognise such a child and work towards winning his/her confidence so that the child would open up to him/her.  It should be underscored that a teacher must obey the Educational Code and never corporally punish a child.  Corporal punishment could only be sparingly administered by a head teacher.

In the case of the St Angela’s incident, the teacher struck the child with a wooden ruler and some flints were lodged in his hand. The parent visited the school and quite wrongfully and illegally assaulted the teacher, opening herself to a criminal charge.  Had the head teacher been able to intervene, the issue could have been diffused and kept within the confines of the school.

Relying on the media reports of the Queen’s College incident:  A boy in the lower school attempted to bully his female classmate, who was the daughter of a prominent citizen, and the girl stood up to him.  The form teacher intervened and made the two students apologise to each other.  The girl, regarding herself as the victim, probably felt that the same kind of incident may again occur to her and told her parents of it.  (Normally, children never tell parents of such incidents) Her father visited the school to see the headteacher, who, after having kept him waiting, inexplicably did not give him an audience.  The parent visited the school a second time to see the headteacher but instead saw the form teacher who claimed that the parent threatened her and had to be restrained by a female police constable who was present, from assaulting her.   The staff was then mobilised to support the teacher.  The police constable, however, affirmed that the parent was quite proper in his conversation with the teacher and that she never restrained the parent from any kind of assault.  The teacher withdrew her allegations but this incident, which was of the nature of a routine class occurrence, having reached the media, made an unprecedented blot on the name of Queen’s College, though, we understand, the incident has now long been forgotten in the school.

Incidents such as those mentioned above, which seem to be a growing malady, should never occur in the Educational System and the adoption of a few simple rules from the colonial school system would achieve this:

First – etiquette should be taught in every class and printed cards with the do’s and don’ts should be displayed in every room.  In colonial times, such cards had 20 or 25 rules.  Each student should be given a copy of the etiquette card.

Second – teachers must recognise that they are locus parents that are in the parent’s place.  They must accordingly guide, help and understand the psyche of the child, particularly children who may appear to be aggressive and rebellious or dull.  If teachers are untrained or uncertain how to deal with such children, the help of the headteacher should be sought.

Third – the teacher should never strike a child.  If the child comes from a background where violence is the only sanction, the teacher should privately explain to the child why he/she would never use violence and this could be a step in socialising such a child.

Fourth – the teacher should try to establish contact with parents of “difficult” children.  All schools should make an effort to have active parent-teachers associations.

Fifth – teachers and school administrators should always deal with children with fairness since children are acutely aware of fairness and justice, even more so than adults.

Sixth – headteachers and teachers, in general, should treat visiting parents with courtesy, should never keep them waiting, and try to satisfy the issues they may raise.

Seventh – tensions of various kinds will arise from time to time in every school and they should be addressed and diffused as soon as they are recognised.

If these usages from the colonial schools are adapted to our present educational system, they would result in lasting cordiality between parents and teachers.