DISCIPLINE IN CAMEROONIAN SCHOOLS: STAKES AND PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

WRITEN BY:

MONJU CALASANCTIUS MATSIALE

www.edudisciplines.com

Guidance Counselor/Anthropologist

ON THE OCCASION OF NATIONAL GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING DAY IN CAMEROON ON OCTOBER 2008

School is a social institution that assures individual’s socialization. Put somehow different, it is a milieu where man is trained and formed to ensure his integration in the society. The principal objective of formal education as prescribed by National Laws of Orientation in Cameroon, is to “ensure the intellectual development and progress of pupil on the one hand and moral, physical and spiritual progress on the other for a harmonious insertion into the social and professional milieu”

Talking about education and discipline, it has been observed today that cases of indiscipline in schools are increasing each day since educational reforms in Cameroon in 1998. In fact, it is the first difficulty faced by the teaching staff in schools. This has made some of the teachers to begin to think otherwise, that is leaving the profession if better opportunities present. This observation urges us to raise some questions as follows: How can we help Cameroonian schools to promote discipline in schools in order to achieve its principal objective of intellectual development and progress of its pupils? What explains the alarming increase in the cases of indiscipline in schools? What action or strategies could be proposed to restore discipline in schools?

Before attempting responses to the above questions, it is important to understand the notion of discipline. 

THE CONCEPT OF DISCIPLINE

            The word “discipline” like “disciple is derived from Latin word “discere” signifying “learn”. This word thus brings to light the phrase “made to learn and the way of learning”. Thus in a disguise manner the ideas of education and moral ways are attached to it. Discipline at this point, becomes a set up of rules and influences which can be used to govern the mind and train characters. Basically, the notion of discipline describes the relationship that exists between discipline, the pupil and his mentor who is the teacher. Technically, it means to walk on the traces of the master (teacher) in order to cultivate and develop behavior which is similar to his. As a result, if the master who is a model fails, it is very obvious that the pupil who is the learner will also fail.

            The notion of discipline is nearer to order, responsibility, thought behavior, organization, and honesty than punishment, judgment, sanctions blames and warning. Discipline therefore is not essentially a set up of punitive measures which are used against the pupil to bring him/her out of savage or animalistic behavior, it is instead a set up of learning strategies, conditions and educational values which aim at instilling in the pupil human characters which will help him/her to progress. In order words, it is a set-up of measures and roles of conducts put in place to ensure good functioning and unfolding of learning activities in school. It is therefore in this light that discipline can assist educators to accomplish its goals of training/building characters and personalities of learners. Discipline and education are therefore directly closed notions. Education is handicapped without discipline and discipline without education is dead.

            In the school, there are usually laid down rules and regulations which children are required to follow. This means that pupils are expected to behave in certain accepted ways. But even with this situation, some pupils still misbehave. What then could be the causes of such a behavior in schools?

SOME CAUSES OF INDISCIPLINE IN SCHOOLS

i)                    The classroom or the school is made of pupils from different social and educational family backgrounds. The pupils have their distinct personalities which result to different types of behavior in the school. Such behaviors are usually detrimental to the teaching and learning process.

ii)                   Boredom is also one cause of indiscipline in schools. Many pupils become mischievous in the school because class work bores them and they are unable to think of any other thing to perform. Boredom which causes pupils to misbehave may be as a result of teacher’s methods of teaching. When a teaching of a lesson becomes monotonous and uninteresting, children tend to become bored and restive and may indulge in mischief as a means of showing their displeasure.

Children can also get bored when the teacher does not provide them with goals to be achieved. In such situations, pupils drift or move about aimlessly in the classroom thus causing mischief. Also, some children tend to be bored when material they are learning is too difficult for them to understand.

iii)                 Frustration and tension can also bring about misbehavior or indiscipline in schools. A pupil experiences frustration if he or she finds that he/she is unable to do or have something which he/she very much desires or wants. Many of this in the school environment can lead to frustration and tension in pupils. For instance, the school rules and regulations may be a source of frustration for some pupils since they look at rules and regulations as obstacles. For some pupils, the tendency of the teacher and school authorities to make them work hard could lead to frustration and tension. The pressure of some compulsory subjects in the school curriculum is often resented by many pupils and could also be a source of frustration and tension for most children.

iv)                 The desire for attention, recognition and status is another cause of misbehavior by children. The need for attention, recognition and status is one of the social needs which every child is always striving to achieve. Some pupils misbehave because they do not get attention, recognition and status from both their parents and teachers. In order to obtain attention, recognition and status, they engage in misbehavior which makes their classmates and peers to recognize them.

v)                  Increase in the number of pupils in school, has changed educational institutions. The increase number makes it difficult to manage and take care of individual pupils. Thus controlling cases of indiscipline becomes difficult. This perceptible in class where it becomes completely difficult for the teacher to manage the class because of large class size

vi)                 A rupture between the job market and schooling. The classical view which was “if you work hard you will have a good job” enabled people to work harder and support the difficulties of going through formal education. Today, education has deceived the societal goals because it cannot provide jobs to all those who leave school. In this light, most pupils doubt the fallout of education because their elders are roaming around in the quarter with no jobs. Thus their misbehavior becomes some sought of a rebellion against the school.

 CONSEQUENCES OF INDISCIPLINE

            Pupils’ misbehavior can pose a lot of consequences not only on him, but also to the teacher, parents and the educational system at large.

            Indiscipline can compromise the educational success of the pupil who is indiscipline. It can also compromise his/her harmonious insertion into socio-professional life. Misbehaved pupils do not command any respect in the social milieu in which they live. Therefore, an indiscipline pupil will lose self-control, cooperation, respect for rights and opinions of others as well as respect for authority.

            Also, misbehavior affects the teacher. At times, he can be stressed up, anguished and frustrated when faced with problems affecting his professional life and also the teaching and learning process; similarly, he sometimes feels guilty and responsible thereby developing physical and psychological problems. Above all, the educational values, objectives and goals of the school and the family are at stake. Thus the school or the family can be very frustrated because of misbehavior of pupils.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO PRESENT PUPIL’S MISBEHAVIOR OR INDISCIPLINE

            Indiscipline in schools can be handled in several ways. Some of the ways are presented below.

1)      Educational partners, that is school administrators, teachers, guidance counselors, parents and pupils have to work together in order to tackle the problem of indiscipline in school. Each and every partner has a role to play in helping an indiscipline pupil to cultivate a moral sense of responsibility and success.

2)      A solution to the problem of indiscipline has to begin at home. Parents are therefore advised to double their efforts in instilling moral education to their children from tender age. Even if the situation seems desperate today.

3)      Some how, teachers should be conscious of the fact that their irresponsibility, lack of honesty, poor work, lack of professional ethics contributes to indiscipline in schools. As such, they are called up to live a responsible life in school in order to make the pupils see him as a model.

4)      The restoration of the authority of the teacher is a necessary step to apply discipline in school. Competence without authority is as powerless as authority without competence. This can be done through the responsible conducts or actions of the teacher himself since what makes authority in him is his faithfulness to his own principles. Even if he makes mistakes, those principles will be recognized by the pupil. It should be underscored here that having authority is not synonymous to power; it is to win or obtain the adhesion of pupils without resorting to violence or threats. Also, the parents and educational authorities can help the teacher to regain his authority. This can be done by having confidence in him, his work and giving value to his functions, creating favorable conditions for his work.

5)      Teachers equally have to know that encouraging cooperative actions can also bring about discipline. A successful and effective teacher is always looking towards attaining cooperative group action. He can do this by avoiding authoritarian leadership style and behavior. When the teacher uses this type of leadership, he quarrels and argues with his pupils always, he may make the children to obey.  In encouraging group action among his pupils, the teacher can make use of project method and group assignment techniques. Pupils have to be made to take responsibility of their own actions and behavior.

6)      Indiscipline in school does not term from a hollow. It is as a result of diverse acts, such as socio-economic problems of the family, the child’s position in the family, sex, age, frustration in school, socio-cultural factors, relations with teachers and physical and psychological factors that a pupil may misbehave. At this juncture, the guidance counselor is called upon to find out through interviews and psycho technical tests the fundamental bases of indiscipline in pupils. Understanding the interests, aptitudes, motivations, problems, personalities and needs of the pupil enable the guidance counselor to solve the problem of indiscipline by seeking for solutions that help the pupil cultivate responsible values.

7)      It is important to place the pupil at the centre to promote discipline in schools. Cameroonian System of Education places the pupil at the centre of learning. If he is at the centre of learning, he is also supposed to be at the centre to maintain discipline in school. Therefore, the pupil should know how discipline manifests and how it plays on his educational life. Putting the pupil at the centre of discipline means to implicate him in the continuous process of maintaining law and order in school. It is also a means to create awareness in students and the means of promoting discipline within the school by themselves.

This is not an exhaustive list of solutions to indiscipline but a contribution to solving the problem of indiscipline that has characterized our educational system in recent years. Pupils are bound to misbehave in school from time to time. When such misbehaviors come up, authorities should tackle with diligence in order to avoid creating other misbehaviors.  

REFERENCES

Leke Tambo, 1989. General Pedagogy, Principles and Foundations of Education.