In Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh the following terrible incident has happened where the Maharshi Sandipani Ved Vidya Sansthan scholar (a student) beat a teacher and the teacher has been beaten into pulp. In this case it was the student who slept next to a poor and other-than to improve their future and the fact was that they slept on the wrong bed this is what motivated the punishment from the onset.
People claim that the student was beaten with sticks and beaten mercilessly such that they were punished with sticks and beat up so severely that we saw him beaten home to tears and bones. The teacher felt out of arrogance and anger and justified it as a matter of discipline but punishment turned out in this case to be far worse. There's nothing to the consequences of sleeping on another student’s bed but there is no reason why the punishment was so severe, the response so extreme and violent.
Schools are known to be temples of education where children are raised to develop that value of respect, compassion, discipline etc., but when the discipline becomes cruel, not only does that harm the character of the student but the school. Then we’ve got to be really clear that there’s a pretty fine line between discipline and abuse. If that type of behavior is called discipline, what constitutes cruelty?
The incident has turned on parents and students and the whole community. In all the discussion that arose this violence has to not be allowed in the name of discipline. To the student’s supporters there is no menace or brutality to education. At its worst, teachers are accused of misuse of authority and lack of humanity.
This case begs obvious questions:
- Does physical punishment feel OK for schools nowadays?
- How can institutions deal with minor disciplinary problems?
- What safeguards are there for protecting students from abuse?
The incident also requires responsibility for a criminal. We need to investigate and take action, at least in principle, and to make sure the same bad behaviour does not occur again.
The beating of a student for sleeping on another bed is a disturbing example of misplaced discipline. Education should be about guidance, not violence. When schools become places of fear, they fail to accomplish what we really want them to represent. The Ujjain incident should be a harsh reminder that human beings should be respected, and never go for anything that brings about that thing of discipline that isn’t fair. In such situations we must act in order to protect students and protect their dignity to be educated.
