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MICHAELA MUSCAT speaks to education experts about curbing the violence in schools where students and parents have attacked teachers: is it time for a sweeping reform in the system?
Within the past two weeks, three physical assaults took place in schools in Malta. Only last Friday, the father of a kindergarten student repeatedly kicked and punched the headmaster of Zabbar’s Primary ‘A’ school, assaulted the assistant head and a caretaker.
The Malta Union of Teachers has been asking the Ministry of Education to employ security officers since 1996, emphasising that the situation has to be tackled sooner rather than later as teachers are leaving their profession as a result of the stress.
But the ministry is defensive: “Out of the 14 teachers who resigned last year for example, no teacher gave the students’ behaviour as a reason for leaving the profession. Although all cases of misbehaviour need to be treated seriously, we also need to be realistic about facts,” ministry spokesperson Claude Sciberras says. “Out of 60,000 students attending state schools, we normally have an average of 12 to 13 cases per year of serious misbehaviour.”
Dr Mary Darmanin, education lecturer at the University of Malta, concurs: “actual physical violence from pupils to teachers is very limited, though grievous for those who experience it, and only present in extreme and isolated cases.” She says the most violence she has seen are in boys’ schools where heads and teachers, “especially the males, do not stop it and seem to condone a culture of masculinity in which it is ok to be rough and even bullying or violent.”
A teacher who works in what she calls “one of the most problematic area secondary schools in Malta” agrees with Darmanin. Physical violence is rare, but psychologically the students wear them down. “They bully us by refusing to sit down, to write, to pay attention, to do anything really. And what is worse is that they know that we can’t do anything about it. Suspending them for a day? They would love that.”
Sighing when asked if they have a problem with illiteracy, she retorts that the question should be reversed: “you should ask if we have any students who are literate enough to sit for proper exams. Besides it is close to impossible to teach subjects like physics to students who are illiterate or uninterested in the subjects. You can understand their frustration, but we have to answer to the education division officials at the end of the year.”
Darmanin intertwines the violence problem with the education system and believes that this is also a question of social justice. The system is failing them because there is not a task-oriented atmosphere in schools and too much time is spent on activities that are peripheral to students’ academic learning.
“Those students whose parents cannot teach them the basics themselves can only learn when they are at school. Yet primary schools are both becoming less learning-oriented, with much time spent on social activities including swimming lessons in November to give one example, and more concerned with ‘showy’ activities such as fairs and concerts with very little educational value.”
It is no secret that certain regions in Malta suffer from a greater degree of socio-economic problems than others. John Bencini, president of the Malta Union of Teachers, is at first reluctant to classify the more problematic schools: “certain schools have a history of problems including violence. And this includes a number of schools that happen to be located in the South as well as in areas such as Birkirkara.”
On the other hand, schools in Mellieha, Attard and Gozo were identified as always having been free from violent incidents.
The ministry of education however, says there is no such thing as a problem school: “every school has its own set of problems and challenges and the education division provides a range of services for students and teachers according to their needs. Each school has the support of an Education Division official who is constantly there to offer support and guidance.”
Darmanin argues there are several factors that contribute to poor behaviour. “A policy that just deals with one aspect of it, or that ‘patholigises’ pupils, that is, treats individuals as if they are the problem, will not work. It is evident that the problem is both more widespread and patterned, and is therefore a social and education issue, and needs to be dealt with at the social, not individual level.”
Individual teachers who spoke to this newspaper correspond with these views. Students often experience patterns of behaviour indicative of a childhood which is not serene. Getting beaten to a pulp by a drunk father can be the norm: “how can we expect students to want to learn when generations of their families have been unemployed?” a teacher tells MaltaToday. “For them being unemployed is normal. Life is all about drinking tea in glasses and showing off birds that they carry around in their cages. They also taunt us that when they add up the social contributions, they would be financially better off than us.”
Darmanin says there is a need to see how much of poor school behaviour arises out of social and family cultures “which are becoming more liberal, if not even completely ‘disorganised’, or how much of it is the result of the education system.”
Teachers however feel helpless facing children coming from homes where domestic violence and alcoholism is rife: “we are not allowed to interfere with affairs not strictly related to school matters so we have to refer them to social workers. But this list seems to be never-ending and sometimes an acknowledgement can take up to a couple of weeks to be sent. It’s heartbreaking for us but we have to operate within the system.”
Initiative by the school staff is often taken to bypass regulations without infringing them. “This stalemate is resolved by working with the parish priest and social workers,” says the teacher, who has often spoken about these problems, remarking that education officials dislike him for attempting to kick up a reaction about the situation. “But this is ultimately the result of initiatives taken by the school staff and not of government policy.”
In this case the recent government policy of homogeneity in these problem areas is causing more harm than good. The regionalised college system means that all of the schools coming from one region will be feeding into the same schools. Teachers are exasperated: “in our case this policy is a disaster in the making. The Three Cities are within walking distance of each other, so our hopes that neighbourhood gangs consisting of boys from Bormla, Birgu, and Isla are split up when they are sent to different schools are now crushed.”
Critics say the upcoming reform by the Ministry of Education only leaves intact the very selective system which leads to poor achievement and poor behaviour. The Malta Union of Teachers remains more concerned with the system’s effect on teachers rather than on teachers as well as on pupils.
Teachers who have to teach illiterate students cannot understand why they have to stick to teaching subjects that students are not able to comprehend: “although we have had a few success stories who managed to get a couple of ‘O’ levels and then were able to go on to MCAST. Still, I think that it would make more sense for us to teach the majority how to read and write. At least when they leave school they will have something to show for it.”
Education experts are convinced one of the solutions is the development of an accelerated reading, writing and numeracy programme that would include ways how to move into the mainstream curriculum quicker. The Malta Union of Teachers is however exasperated with the slow place of reform at the Ministry of Education, Bencini says. “According to the National Minimum Curriculum, subjects like physics should not be taught in schools where the majority of students cannot cope. The solution to this problem would be a comprehensive system which would allow students to proceed according to their needs. Our system is unheard of in other European countries.”
mmuscat@mediatoday.com.mt
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