Archbishop of Shillong Dominic Jala (left) lights the inaugural lamp during the summit in Shillong on Tuesday. Picture by UB Photos

Shillong, April 12: Possibly taking a leaf out of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) rules that allow two coloured cards to be shown against erring soccer players, a school here has initiated three coloured cards to discipline students.

While the rod has been spared as the Centre has banned corporal punishment since July last year, St Edmund’s School, a Christian Brothers institution, has developed a three-coloured card system to regulate truant students.

Speaking on the sidelines of a regional summit of school principals on Discipline: New Challenges, at St Anthony’s Higher Secondary School today, M. Trevor Syiem, principal of St Edmund’s, said, “We have introduced a three-coloured card system. The cards are shown to erring students who have committed major offences.”

Elaborating, Syiem said if a student commits a major offence for the first time, a green card would be shown to him. “This will be followed by a yellow card, which signifies a stronger warning and finally, a red one where the student has to leave the school,” she said.

While the cards are sparingly used, Syiem said the system has proved to be effective to deter students from being indisciplined.

Syiem, who has been teaching at the school for about two decades, said the huge exposure of students to media has been one of the prime causes for rise in indiscipline among schoolchildren.

“Children are exposed to the media when they are at home. Parents should ensure that children use the media in a judicious manner,” she said.

Saying that discipline should be “inculcated” and not “enforced”, Syiem said present day students have fewer role models to emulate. “Children need guidance where positive behaviour should be inculcated in them,” she said, adding that value education was imperative.

The summit, attended by around 150 principals from across Khasi-Jaintia Hills and Guwahati, was a joint venture between St Anthony’s Higher Secondary School and the Institute of Counsellor Training Research and Consultancy, New Delhi.

Resource persons from the institute enlightened the participants on the need to move from punitive to positive discipline.

Inaugurating the summit, Archbishop of Shillong Dominic Jala expressed concern over the absence of discipline in society. “Unless we have certain values and are deeply rooted in spirituality, we cannot have discipline,” the Archbishop said.

St Anthony’s principal Father K. Rajendran said, “While there is no ideal solution to maintain discipline among students, principals have garnered ideas on how to positively discipline children with love, concern and persistence.”

He said schools were exhorted to take pre-emptive measures to curb indiscipline among students and maintain consistency in dealing with students. “Teachers should have a positive mindset and believe that students can behave properly. An idea to have a discipline policy was also mooted,” he said. Teachers’ role had to change from dispenser of knowledge to guidance worker and counseller-cum-teacher, he added.