Schools not insulated from strife
Tshwarelo Hosia | Monday June 8, 2026 06:00
This is the ideal environment that every school needs. But the school environment is far from ideal. Schools are not insulated from trouble. Now and then, schools have to contend with mistakes and limitations that plague and undermine operational efficiency. In the execution of their teaching functions, teachers sometimes falter, and so do students.
Motivated by youth exuberance and experimental adventurism, a number of students could find themselves on the wrong side of the law. A spike in disciplinary cases has become a common feature of schools, especially in underachieving ones. In worst-case scenarios, instances of violations of school policies and regulations can be countless. Best schools are defined by how well they handle disciplinary cases to ensure the orderly execution of the teaching and learning mandate while safeguarding the security of both staff and students. Schools that are highly challenged in terms of governance in general and conflict resolution in particular can become serious trouble spots, where the centre cannot hold. Nonetheless, order is a prerequisite for effective teaching and learning, and it must be jealously protected.
Schools therefore have a duty to shape students’ behaviour and equip them with sufficient knowledge and skills to overcome distractions, ensuring complete focus on the business of learning. However, not all students adhere to school policies and regulations. Preaching about good conduct does not always succeed. Bad students’ behaviours warrant the attention and swift response of school authorities. Different school jurisdictions respond differently to disciplinary issues. Some schools, motivated by faith in students’ ability to redeem themselves, adopt more restorative and less punitive measures.
It would appear most schools use a hybrid of gentle corrective measures and harsh punitive ones depending on the circumstances at hand. The goal of school interventions is to effect behavioural change among students and restore a troubled school to normalcy. No school desires a perpetuation and escalation of conflicts and anarchy. This is why appropriate and timely remedial actions are required to bring back discipline and order. Different transgressions attract different reactions and varying degrees of penalties. Serious transgressions such as violent conduct and drug peddling are abhorable and consequently should attract stern punitive measures.
Violence causing injuries warrants suspension or permanent exclusion from school. Suspension is a justified and non-negotiable punishment in circumstances where a student’s conduct is within the precincts of redemption. However, expulsion, as the most severe punishment, is appropriate in circumstances where a student is a serial lawbreaker and deemed irredeemable. Plucking one student out of school to guarantee the safety of other students and staff is of paramount importance. Minor transgressions usually attract restorative measures, such as temporary loss of privileges like break time, tennis, and swimming.
When stamping out school authority and bringing back discipline, it is important to avoid loss of academic focus. A win-win situation is one that ensures discipline without unnecessarily creating an academic backlog, which might jeopardise a school’s academic standing. Suspension or expulsion from school should never be synonymous with academic disengagement.
The idea is to punish bad behaviour without undermining the future of the wayward students. Conscious of the need to guarantee uninterrupted learning, a homework package should be arranged for the student on suspension, and parents should be made aware of the work and their responsibility for ensuring it is completed. Creating an academic backlog is tantamount to academic suicide. When suspension coincides with examinations, arrangements should be made for the student to write under special circumstances.
The school should discuss openly with parents the terms and conditions governing the suspension. The parent should be responsible for escorting their child directly to the examination room about 20 minutes before the commencement of the examination, and for escorting the child out of school immediately after the end of the examinations. The student on suspension should never have the freedom to interact and socialise with other students while suspended.
Keeping students academically engaged and on their toes during a period of suspension aligns with the desire to deliver uninterrupted, relentless teaching and learning. It seeks to modify the behaviour without taking the pedal off teaching and learning. Also, it makes the student feel wanted and not treated like a worthless outcast.
This is also part and parcel of tempering justice with mercy. Overall, humane punishment stands a better chance of achieving quick behaviour change while also maintaining the academic momentum. Much as schools have a duty to stamp out indiscipline, no school should appear trigger-happy in ejecting students with the slightest provocation, especially when alternative measures appear viable and feasible.
Long suspension sentences, where possible, should be avoided, as they could harden attitudes and foster a strong rebellious spirit and a culture of resentment. Students staying away from classroom stimulation for a prolonged period might completely lose touch with schoolwork while risking sliding into hard-core rebellion.
When parents are unhappy with the school’s justice system, they may also lose confidence in schools, which could undermine the strategic partnership schools seek to forge and nurture with Parents. Parents, too, should approach issues of school discipline with an objective mind, balancing the need to protect their children’s right to attend school with the urgency of safeguarding the rights of other students and their well-being. Students wielding and brandishing weapons in school should be checked out of school because they pose a threat to the school community. At the end of the day no child should be insulated from accountability. But the school’s business should never be disrupted.