A school is a place
where learning takes place, and it happens consciously and subconsciously.
During olden days most of the schools used to be situated within the community,
Example; even today in many small villages, schools are situated very close to
the child’s home. Today as towns and cities have expanded, the schools are no
more a part of the community. As schools are no more a part of the community,
the concern for their safety is enlarged.
A
school is a place where a child spends most of his time, and his primary care
takers parents are not around him. It is believed that schools, along with
academics should take care of child’s safety and well-being. The child spends a considerable time at school,
he has regular interactions with various participants at school such as
teachers, peers and non-teaching staff as well. They all have influences on his
well-being and safety. As student well-being is critical for the academic
achievement and the child’s success in life, schools should take necessary
actions to prevent and respond to the issues which affect the student
well-being. The school culture, climate, and infrastructure should support and
ensure the student well-being.
I like to emphasize on
three approaches to achieve student well-being.
a. Culture
b. Proactive measure
c. Reactive measure
All the three approaches
are important. The good culture is very challenging to achieve and it could
take some years and also decades to attain. The good thing about culture is,
once it is sensible, it could sustain for decades without much effort. A good
school culture might not depend on CCTV cameras and other human controlled
supervision. For a good culture, instead of supervision and authority, the
human value is key. The culture is based wholly on trust. Trust is the core of
a virtuous school culture.
A school
culture consists of the values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that all
stakeholders share in common. The culture determines how
stakeholders describe where they work, how they understand each
other, and how they see themselves as part of the school.
Usually, when there is
an immoral situation in a school in any part of the country, other schools turn
to proactive measures.
And if the situation
arises within our very own school, the schools adopt reactive measures.
Let us try to understand
all the three approaches in brief.
a. Culture:
A good school culture
will contribute to the student well-being. Culture is, "the way of life,
especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at
a particular time". The culture in school involves the routines, practices,
norms which the school follows on a day to day routine. Example; School might
follow a culture like, ‘listening somebody is a good deed’, Helping somebody is
virtuous’.
Culture can also be
understood as the shared beliefs of the particular community, here the school
culture will be shared belief or practices of the school community i.e.
students, teachers and other staffs. The practices of the school like
appreciating safety and well-being among stakeholders, core values that the
school follows, the way things happen inside the school etc. will constitute
the culture of the school.
b. Proactive measures:
Proactive measures involve a positive school
culture. It consists of actions taken to decrease the likelihood of an incident
occurring. These measures also set in place techniques or procedures meant to
mitigate the damage caused by any unfavorable incident at school environment.
These measures cut down on response time, guarantee a uniform response from all
school participants, and promote the safe and secure environment. In modern age
preventive measures could be having CCTV cameras in critical areas, GPS in
school vans, and a female attendant at every school van. And at the broader
level, it could be health and nutrition education, physical drill exercises and
so on.
Proactive measure refers to the thing that
prevents, hinders, or acts as an obstacle to a possible harm. In a school, the
preventive measure could consist of capacity building/training of all the
school participants like teachers, students, and administrators.
c. Reactive measures:
In contrast to
preventive measures, the reactive measures are usually spontaneous actions that
respond to an incident or unfavorable event. Often, these reactions are not the
preferred method of dealing with the said incident. These situations and events
can open the door to panic and poor decision making, nevertheless, they are
important. In school, reactive measures could be consulting a police or
education department to deal with the emergency. And for other emergencies like
physical harm or fire, it could be, first aid and fire safety equipment readily
available during the emergency.
The well-being practices
in school should be such that no child feels uncomfortable at school and does
not feel suicidal tendencies. But in case things go awry we need to have a
counseling or pastoral care facility as reactive measure at school. Facilities
like counseling could come under preventive measures as well as reactive
measures.
Conclusion:
The schools should put
more emphasis on developing a positive school culture. The schools should
appreciate trust and integrity. Encourage respect among stakeholders. Value
self-accountability as a moral deed. Have a clear channel of upward and
downward communication.
Generally, in
organizational transformation, the leadership is considered to be very powerful
and transformative. Leadership is about setting direction, influencing people,
and developing the organizational capacity to perform. It is hard to conceive
of developing the right school culture, the school-community connect, school
resources and infrastructure, well-being culture without effective school
leadership.
By,
Maaz Mohammed A.Q
(Writer is learning strategist at Life Skills Express)
By,
Maaz Mohammed A.Q
(Writer is learning strategist at Life Skills Express)