Engaging students and building teacher effectiveness can lead to an ideal environment in the school, believes Mrs Ritu Pal, Principal, Hainault Public School, Shimla. In an interview with Keekli Reporter, Ashima Sharma, she emphasizes that discipline in schools is the key to success for all students!
Keekli Reporter: How will you identify the educational needs and values of the students and community at large?
Mrs Ritu Pal: People form a community and in order have a healthy environment in a community education plays a very important role. Education forms the very essence of all our actions. As a whole, people can bring about development only when their educational foundation is strong.
Keekli: Please describe the role you feel parents should play in the development of their children?
Ritu: Parental involvement in children’s learning is a key factor in improving children’s academic attainment and achievements, as well as their overall behaviour and attendance. A parent’s attitudes, aspirations and actions are all important, as is their ability to understand their child’s day-to-day progress and talk regularly with their child about their learning.
Keekli: When you visit a classroom, what are the first things you look for as signs that the classroom is an effective learning place?
Ritu: I make sure that there are lots of educational charts in the class. Another very important point in order to have effective learning is the involvement of children while teaching, i.e., putting forward their doubts and answering questions as asked by the teachers in the class.
Keekli: What discipline standards or procedures have you found to be effective when dealing with students?
Ritu: I believe that discipline is about changing behaviour, not about punishing children. Teachers play a very important role in bringing about discipline amongst children. If teachers have a good rapport with the students, maintaining discipline becomes easier. If we still have disciplinary issues, the matter is discussed with the parents in order to find an appropriate solution.
Usually, discipline breach takes place due to cell phones carried by students in the classroom. We have given strict instructions to parents not to give cell phones to their children during schools hours, and for any kind of urgency or emergency there are always office landline numbers where they can contact the school authorities. At this tender age children do not understand the proper usage of cell phones and these are often misused which parents fail to understand.
Keekli: “You educate a woman, you educate a generation”? Do you agree with this quote? If so please explain yourself.
Ritu: I completely agree with the quote as woman’s education plays a very important part in molding the future of a child and improving the condition of women in our Indian society. Education is the key for women to move up the ladder of society. It also helps in reducing crimes against women and building a better society.
Keekli: How would you describe your leadership style? And what are the traits of an effective principal?
Ritu: My main motive is to work towards a disciplined staff. There are a lot of responsibilities on the shoulder of a principal as he/she is a representative of the entire school. A principal should have an excellent rapport with the teachers as well as the students of the school. It is important for him/her to implement good ideas in order to maintain a healthy environment in the school. Each day presents a unique set of challenges in the life of a principal and being organized and prepared is essential to meeting those challenges.
Keekli: Describe your style of supervising staff and subordinates?
Ritu: I ask my teachers to give their 100 per cent and maintain discipline amongst students and everything else automatically falls into place. This works every time for me (laughs) because I have an excellent staff. My staff has never disappointed me. We work with a lot of co-operation.
Keekli: What tasks or responsibilities do you typically delegate and what do you do yourself?
Ritu: My main concern always remains discipline amongst students not only in behavior but also in studies, so I make sure that teachers pay special heed to it. As far as I am concerned I keep a close check by taking rounds during the classes. I make sure that the teachers check the notebooks of the students regularly by going through them every month.
Keekli: Describe a recent incident that required quick reaction and good judgment on your part to control children?
Ritu: There has not been a particular incident but as far as quick reaction and good judgment is concerned, they are necessities for a principal.
Keekli: What is the hardest part of your job?
Ritu: Sometimes it becomes a little problematic to deal with certain undisciplined children. It becomes very difficult for me to handle them. In such cases parents have to be involved and an apt decision has to be taken because it is regarding the future of a child and one has to be very careful.
Keekli: Can you describe a typical day in the life of being a principal?
Ritu: Each day of being a principal is important to me and very close to my heart. Every day I learn something new from my experiences.
Keekli: Do you feel the Education Department and the Government have taken sound decisions in framing the education policy? What is your opinion?
Ritu: I prefer the old education system. The changes that have been made in the education policy are not up to the mark. I feel while framing the policies, a panel of teachers and principals from all schools should be taken into consideration as they understand the problems at the grass root level.
Keekli: If there was something you could change about the education system what would it be and why?
Ritu: Our education system is geared towards teaching and testing knowledge at every level as opposed to teaching skills. “Give a man a fish and you feed him one day, teach him how to catch fishes and you feed him for a lifetime”. Knowledge is largely forgotten after the semester exams are over but skills learned stay with you all your life. This is one of the fundamental flaws of our education system.
Keekli: Do you favour corporal punishment or any form of reprimand to teach discipline to the students? What role should parents play in controlling their children?
Ritu: I am strictly against corporal punishments; there are many other ways to discipline a child. The use of corporal punishment can leave a tremendous amount of negative effects on the child. These effects can be either short term or long term, and vary in degrees of severity. An innovative way adopted by me is to give them extra amount of projects for classes and additional responsibility of co-curricular activities in order to punish them. It is a two pronged approach, one they realize their mistakes and avoid making them again and second they understand the meaning of responsibility and work hard to give good results.
In order to keep children in control, parents need to differentiate between negotiations and arguments, leniency and strictness and needs and wants of the children.
Keekli: Are you in favour of the International Baccalaureate World Schools coming up in India?
Ritu: No, I am not in favour of IB World Schools, mainly because of two reasons: First, the relationship between a student and a teacher needs to have certain boundaries in order to maintain discipline which is not the case in these kinds so schools. Second, I believe this kind of education system is not going to work in India as the social conditions in India are very different than that in the western countries.
Keekli: Bullying in the schools has become very common. What steps do you take to stop it?
Ritu: I usually don’t get complaints against bullying in my school. I take steps to ensure that this kind of nuisance doesn’t take place in our school, we advise the juniors not to be overfriendly and too much involved with the seniors. The students of the senior classes are made to sign affidavits in order to curb bullying.
Keekli: Do you think there should be more of inter-school activities in Shimla?
Ritu: I do feel that more inter-school activities should be organized in Shimla schools as it tells the students where they stand in comparison to the other schools. It also provides them exposure and helps them grow as a student and as human beings.