Dubai: Constant monitoring of student behaviour is the best precautionary measure against student violence in schools, educators say.
In light of the recent incident where an eighth grader was stabbed four times by another student at a school in Dubai last week, Gulf News spoke to educators, parents and health experts about how to prevent such incidents from recurring.
The latest school inspections by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) found that most private schools in Dubai provide students with a healthy and safe environment.
The inspection report read: “health and safety was good or better in 85 per cent of schools and acceptable in most of the remainder.”
However, with the emergence of new negative influences — such as violent content in movies, video games and music — some students might resort to violence to express or solve their problems.
A study published on the American Psychological Association website found that violent content in media causes children to become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others and be more likely to behave aggressively towards others.
Mohannad Abu Al Huda, Vice-principal of Al Dawha Private School in Sharjah, said monitoring students is the critical step in preventing violence because it allows for early intervention to take place, before a violent streak sets in among students.
“At the beginning of the year, I ask the social worker at my school for two lists: list of students who are careless about their grades and another of students who are misbehaving. We then monitor these students’ performance and schedule appointments with them to get to the root of the problem and offer advice throughout the year.”
Abu Al Huda said the responsibility of monitoring students falls on schools as well as parents because the violence can stem from different sources.
“They could be influenced by violent content in games and movies, having the wrong type of friends and even having an unbalanced and unhealthy diet that fuels bad behaviour, so they should be monitored at home and school.”
Abu Al Huda said that if a student does not respond to verbal warnings, depending on the situation, the student can be suspended or instead be assigned work around the school. “Instead of being suspended and sitting at home doing nothing, I prefer to assign them with duties around the school like organising desks or other similar tasks to allow them to reflect on what they have done and direct their anger into something useful.”
The CEO of Indian High School Dr Ashok Kumar also concurred that tracking and monitoring students’ behaviour is crucial in keeping violent tendencies in check.
“It is very important to keep track of students’ behaviour in class and outside of class. Policies and practices should be in place to check how students behave, whether they are amicable or not. We constantly check students’ attitude; if they are aggressive, they are counselled.”
Dr Kumar said young minds are often influenced by a lot of what they see on television. Young mindsets also tend to change at every new stage of student life and so it’s the responsibility of parents as well as teachers to guide them through this phase, he added.
In addition to monitoring and counselling students, Dr Kumar recommended random checks of schoolbags and students to identify any objects that may not be permissible in the school premises. “The class teachers along with the class monitors carry out these checks for each student in class. Though there haven’t been cases of bullying reported, we have strict policies regarding bullying in school.”
School teacher Mariam Bilal held the view that even though violent attacks rarely occur, schools and teachers should be equipped to deal with such situations. “Don’t just focus on disciplining the child, try to find a solution. I found that digging deeper into the cause of the fight and making students reconcile is the best solution to stop them from fighting once again.”
Parents also shared their insights on school safety. Nehaya Al Khatib, a Jordanian mother of three said having sufficient number of supervisors is crucial. “My children’s school has a large number of supervisors, every corridor has two and that definitely stops fight before anyone is harmed.”
When asked if students’ bags should be checked daily for sharp objects, father of two, Hassan Yousuf said he wouldn’t want his children to study in a jail-like environment. “I don’t think all students at a school should suffer for the mistake of a few students. Teaching and raising students correctly at home and school about the negatives of violence and then keeping an eye on them at school and would suffice.”
