Francis: Teach children self-discipline

CAROL MATROO

STUDENTS need to develop their own self-discipline and self-control to help them within the education system.

So said Minister in the Ministry of Education Dr Lovell Francis, at a news conference recently at the Education Towers, St Vincent Street, Port of Spain.

The news conference was about the revision of the National Schools Code of Conduct and Parenting in Education.

Francis said discipline was not about controlling children.

“It is important that the ministry not only establish, but also highlight a school code of conduct.

Our education system was created from its very inception as a means and mode of control, not to encourage development or social mobility, all of the things that we think about as being central education.

“These are new additions to our education system. One of the things we talk about in this country in terms of student behaviour or misbehaviour is the question of discipline, something we often misconstrue. Discipline is a word that could have ‘self’ in front of it. It is not about controlling the students or controlling their behaviour, or their time management. It is really about teaching them to control themselves.”

Francis said it was all well and good for the education system to have rules and consequences, as that was a part of the human existence. There were always rules and there are always consequences, he said, and if one broke the rules, that was par for the course.

“But one of things we really need to be doing is to allow our students to develop self-control, self-discipline and self-efficacy that are integral to their development.”

The minister said if students understood there were standards that were expected of them, and the standards were not too high or not too low, that standards were achievable and that they could be the best that they could be, that would help in their development.

“Often times when students under-perform and you look at it critically, central somewhere is the fact that there are either no standards at all or standards that are so low that what you will get is abysmal performance.

“We are all seeing right now in high definition what happens when human beings grow to be adults without understanding how to manage their behaviour and their emotions,” Francis said, alluding to the multiple murders that have been plaguing the country.

Education Minister Anthony Garcia urged parents to play a more important role in their children’s lives.

“Parents play as important a role as teachers, because a learning environment does not extend only to the school, it extends to the home, and whatever happens in the home will affect in some way whatever happens in the classroom.

“It is a fact that parents must play an important role and we want to ensure that we can bridge the gap between the school and the students by having the parents involved.”