Colleges – both, arts and science, and engineering say disciplining students is a challenging task. The hold over students is not so strong when it comes to students in colleges. Or in other words, there are only a few acceptable ways and means that the institutions have on hand to pull up erring students.
The most powerful among those and one that invokes fear among the students is asking them to turn up with parents or not enter classroom, says R. Kumaresan, a former head of the Government Arts College.
The students indulge in mischief or misdemeanour with the confidence that such acts would not reach parents ears. But once this is ensured, they fall in line, he explains and adds that during his service he has seen parents apologising on behalf of their son or daughter and that having a desirable effect on the students.
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There have also been occasions where parents have thrashed their wards right in the college, in front of faculty and students.
Most colleges use the ‘call the parents’ card but they also say such things to ensure discipline: one of those is telling the students that if they failed to confirm to the expected behaviour they would have to lose marks in practical exams or internal examination.
This applies to arts and humanities students as well even though they do not have practical examinations as science students, says Jaishree Santhosh, Chief Executive Officer, VLB Janakiammal College of Arts and Science.
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In a few engineering colleges, the managements slap fine on students if they were found indulging in undesirable acts. There were even instances of suspending students and removing them from hostel. But before doing so they ensure that they have the video recording evidence of such acts. To end this colleges have installed cameras across the campus and have also armed members of the disciplinary committees and security with video cameras.
(Reporting by
Karthik Madhavan)