Lady teachers face regular harassment from senior students

The teachers of government schools in the national Capital are being bullied by students whenever they try to discipline them or punish them in classrooms. Apart from regular harassment and embarrassment, cyber bullying is the new low by the disgruntled students who are quite tech savvy in their own right. 

Most of the government school teachers say that in today’s schools, teachers struggle to keep control over a classroom full of students, who can go home and ruin the teacher’s reputation very easily by using social media, or by texting and instant messaging. There are many things that older students can do in order to take control of the teacher, not only in the classroom, but in their everyday lives, causing them to fear for their jobs and also going out in public. 

“Since past seven to eight years, the behaviour of students in government schools have worsened. The students above Class VIII often have an attitude of complete disrespect for any and all adults. If the teacher punishes them or tries to teach them discipline, they retaliate,” said a 51-year-old school teacher of Sarvodaya Vidyalaya.

The male students start stalking the lady teacher if they are told off in class. In many cases, they circulate personal mobile numbers to harass teachers.

Some other teachers said, during classes, the students belonging to particular set of groups always create nuisance by passing comments on the physical appearances, hand writing and spoken

English. 

At times, these students also harass the lady staff by showing  obscene gestures, staring at them or clicking pictures using their mobile phones. 

When the teacher opposes to carrying mobile phones in class, they misbehave or verbally abuse them.

“Once, a student who was a drop-out from another school didn’t scored well in the final examination. After getting to know what subjects he had flunked in, he damaged the vehicles of those 

respective teachers,” said 28-year-old teacher of a Senior Secondary Government School in East Delhi.

The teachers of government schools believe that the atmosphere in their homes, their peer groups are the major reason for their notorious behavior. 

Also, the feeling of adolescence at 14 or 15 years coupled with changes in physical appearances make them all the more aggressive.