No reform can be implemented without a potent dose of discipline in schools. Over the years, a child-centred education and spare-the-rod policy have nurtured a generation of ill-mannered and rebellious youngsters. Discipline has gone to the dogs in some schools and the situation has deteriorated into the law of the jungle.

Lack of parental care and free transport to students have given the wrong signals. Students have obtained a passport for total freedom. They can do whatever they want scot-free. At any time of day, pupils can be seen roaming in public gardens, shopping arcades, bus terminals and places of entertainment. More affluent ones seek refuge in bungalows, far from the eyes of onlookers. Dating has become the order of the day.

Sex, violence, alcohol and money are their main obsessions. The May 75 generation has long vanished, leaving in its trail an unrecognisable one in outlook and mentality (pleasure-seeking, pampered, materialistic and carefree). They can be seen wearing earrings, with punk hair and civilian clothes in their bags.

Students come to some schools not to learn, but to ventilate their frustration and revolt. Automatic promotion is served to pupils on a silver platter. Why should they bother with examinations? In the 50s or 60s, a teacher had only to raise his/her voice to assert his/her authority in class but nowadays times have changed.

The situation has become explosive and out of control. The management of certain schools has become extremely difficult, not to say uncontrollable. Pupils flout school authority and rectors find themselves helpless. There is hardly any deterrent to combat indiscipline. The floodgates of anarchy and indiscipline have burst open. Bullying and extortion of protection money are daily activities.

The Ombudsperson, instead of helping to ease the situation, pours oil into the fire. Why talk of the rights of children, if the latter are not taught their duties towards school and society? What about the rights of teachers as human beings? Can teachers especially ladies continue to pocket such insults? Do they not have human dignity?

Why are teachers and rectors placed in the dock all the time? Under such circumstances, which rectors and teachers will take initiatives of belling the cat? Some young teachers, harassed by packs of wolves in classrooms have, after deep thought, given up teaching. Pupils at home are angels but, when in peer-groups, they are unrecognisable. We can catch glimpses of their misbehaviour in schoolbuses. Conductors and drivers are horrified at incredible acts of hooliganism and vandalism.

All the symptoms of a deep-seated malaise among our youth are conspicuous. School is a reflection of society. The list of past events questions our responsibility as parents and educators. Schoolgirls were sprinkled with urine by angry young men within the premises of their Alma Mater during the illegal celebration of laureates, the graffiti and the foul language scribbled on the walls at Rose-Belle against a rector, the abominable behaviour at a Youth Concert at Curepipe near a church, the arson of a classroom in the South (the case is still in court), the drowning of a schoolboy at Balfour Gardens during school hours. There are so many cases of indiscipline hidden behind the walls of schools. The writing is on the wall. If rectors and teachers, in their quest for quality education, do not receive support from different quarters, then they had better fold their arms, watch and enjoy the show.

Spare the rod, spoil the child. Even Britain, though belatedly, has realised that a certain degree of deterrent, reformative and retributive punishment is necessary to put the child on the right path. Pastoral care is necessary. A strong dose of discipline will pave the way to good learning. If we love our country, we cannot remain indifferent to such indiscipline. Students of today are the citizens of tomorrow. Indiscipline first takes root in the family, spreads itself into school like wild fire and turns into a conflagration in the country.

<B>Philip Li Ching Hum</B>