Research carried out by Dr. Vicram Ramharai (Lead Investigator), Anita Curpen, Hyleen Mariaye and Ajay Ramful. Funded by Mauritius Research Council, Mauritius. 

Synopsis

Indiscipline and Violence in Secondary Schools Synopsis: Mauritian primary and secondary schools have witnessed social changes brought about by a once booming economy. The Mauritian youth are now living in a society transformed by technological progress on the one hand and still tied to traditional, patriarchal and institutional structure on the other.

The claim that Mauritian schools have generally suffered from a deterioration in terms of discipline deserves to be urgently attended to for the following reasons: firstly, because of the need to make our schools secure locations for students, teachers and administrative staff; secondly, addressing the issue of indiscipline and violence is also a means to scrutinize and reach a solution for a number of related problems and thirdly, educational issues should not only concentrate on classroom interactions but should also consider related aspects in teaching and learning. A school-based approach which seeks to integrate the perspectives of all educational actors can be beneficial in analytical terms and also provide a synthetic understanding of how schools function as a meso-system, not only as a micro-system.

The need to urgently redefine the interface between education and misbehaviour has become important because the complexity of the issue and the forms of violence have changed the school environment and the attitude of those facing young students nowadays.

Aims and Objectives:

  • To explain the disruptive classroom and outside classroom behaviour of secondary school students
  • To understand the extent to which discipline and violence are affecting the Mauritian secondary schools
  • To identify and describe the different forms of indiscipline and violence in shools
  • To examine the attribution of students and teachers about the issue of indiscipline and violence
  • To explore the mechanisms that exist within schools to deal with problems of indiscipline and violence
  • To determine the contribution of the school settings and facilities in maintaining discipline
  • To evaluate the contribution of the ministry and the school administration in handling the issue of indiscipline in schools
  • To study how far external factors to school can contribute to indiscipline and violence