Beyond social media and phones, what’s driving ‘discipline’ problems among India’s schoolchildren?

Two recent incidents are an indication of distress among India’s schoolchildren and a reflection of the increasingly turbulent contexts of their lives which continue to be neglected by the education system and society.

In 2025, after completing their final examination, some older students at a public school in Mumbai celebrated by destroying the classroom furniture, windowpanes and breaking CCTV cameras. Even after teachers and a school committee held several meetings with them, the students were unapologetic.

In another instance, some boys and girls carried drugs in their school bags and consumed it with their friends on the premises, according to teachers I spoke to. Despite strict warnings, attempts at persuasion, meetings with parents, and the gentle but firm intervention of the school counsellor and committee, the students did not reveal the name of their supplier.

Teachers from municipal and the so-called elite schools have expressed concern about the growing consumption of substances in and outside the schools, and their inability to control it. More empathetic teachers try to help, seeking the advice of in-house counsellors. Others threaten to report students to the principal or hold them back after class or issue minor punishment. Neither the municipal bodies nor the government seem able or willing to tackle this seriously.

Krishna Kumar, a scholar of education and former director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training, has articulated some of these concerns. In his article, “In India, why teachers are walking away from the classroom”, published on October 5, 2025, Kumar writes about the difficulties that are pushing teachers to quit at a time when lakhs of them face growing unemployment.

He elaborates on the reasons which include “bureaucratic aggression” and expectations, extensive record keeping, frequent testing, extra duties, and dealing with aggression, bullying and violence in the classroom and corridors. His description of the troubling behaviour of school children is especially indicative of the challenges teachers face.

“Discipline” problems are a key source of heightened stress among teachers. It includes a wide range of children’s behaviour ranging from minor mischief – like being noisy in class, pushing each other, being inattentive – to more serious issues such as destructive or extremely rude behaviour, vulgar gestures and comments, insulting teachers and commenting on the girls’ bodies. Around the world, teachers, social workers, counsellors, educationists, blame social media for the behaviour of children.

But there is a broader social context to this.

Violence, alcoholism, open aggression, growing frustration alongside rising aspiration, is the lived reality of the student and their surroundings, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds. Most children experience some trauma but receive little support from parents or other adults, who may themselves suffer from stress, frustration and social pressure.

Gabor Mate, a world-renowned authority on trauma and addiction, says that childhood trauma – such as violence, rejection, humiliation, physical and sexual abuse, the absence of love and understanding – often manifests as anger, rage and defiance in children. After decades of research and practice, Mate believes the turn to drugs or compulsive behaviour is to “alleviate emotional pain and to experience feelings of relief, connection or a sense of being normal”.

But the modern education system is such that at a time when children require the most attention and understanding, teachers are duty-bound to follow the timetable, syllabus, exam schedule, conduct regular evaluations and prepare detailed reports on students’ academic and other performances.

That the overload drives school teachers to give up their jobs is a sentiment shared by most teachers I have interacted with, even those who work in high-end, private schools. Counsellors are also burdened with additional duties, as one of them told me.

After decades of teaching in postgraduate institutions, I am convinced that an inflexible syllabus, a rigid timetable and the examination system that form the “iron cage” of India’s education system, leave little room for innovation, creativity, critical thinking and joyful learning.

The American philosopher Martha Nussbaum has sharply criticised the examination-oriented education system of India, which, she observed, promoted rote learning at the cost of critical thinking. This is a huge issue by itself.

Government and civic authorities, donors, school managements and, of course, parents are focused on academic excellence with little regard for the emotional, mental and physical development of a child. This is hardly surprising in today’s competitive society where a child, even an adult, must “achieve” and “succeed”, the way society defines it.

Better-off parents are under pressure to put in extended hours of work – India’s middle-class white-collar workers are said to be among the most overworked in the world – while the poor battle housing problems, health issues and financial constraints.

Often, teachers and parents have no time or energy, and the community and larger society care little for the wellbeing of children. How else does one explain the appropriation of open spaces for commercial purposes across towns and cities at the cost of what children need the most: playgrounds, open parks and closer contact with nature.

Mate has an illuminating explanation of addiction to anything, digital media or drugs, or any form of excessive harmful consumption and dependence. It is a response to pain, an attempt to cope with emotional emptiness, he explains: “don’t ask why the addiction, ask why the pain”.

He sees addiction as a response to today’s toxic culture characterised by stress, ruthless competition, loneliness and alienation – “at the core of every addiction is an emptiness based in abject fear”. Mate explains children’s anger as a reaction to constant exposure to anger and conflict in the home while lacking secure attachment with adults or a sense of safety and self-worth.

Frustrated, children seek validation from their peers instead of their parents or teachers. Peers lack the maturity to provide the guidance that caring and trusting adults can. In fact, most often a child’s peers may support or encourage bad and dangerous behaviour.

With the weakening of community support and the extended family, Mate points out that children rely on each other and feel like they must be “cool” to be accepted. But “cool” often means the absence or pretence of emotions, the denial of vulnerability, fear and insecurity. In a culture of aggression and violence, children develop an appetite for violence in music, games, art, language.

For Mate, the best solution is to restore children’s attachment to the adult world. The home as well as institutions ranging from day care and kindergarten and upwards at all levels of education – “must hold the emotional nurturance of children as the highest value”.

To this, I would add the natural world, which lights up the child’s mind and heart with curiosity, tenderness, wonderment and an appreciation of beauty. In my experience, an active community can become a revitalising force.

Despite the constraints of today’s society, conscious, energetic citizenry can make a difference: by transforming a neglected small patch of land, or a badly run local library, organising exhibitions, starting a mobile library, or pressurising municipal authorities to provide space, for example, for a small local museum, cultural or sports centre for everyone specially children.

Well-defined rules and boundaries should be communicated to children of all ages for their positive socialisation, guidance and development. But more necessary is to communicate feelings of care, love, trust and compassionate understanding by adults surrounding children, at home in school and in social spaces.

Trusting and empathic adults can play a crucial role in helping a child to identify, acknowledge and deal with hurt, pain, anger and other strong emotions. Over stressed, insensitive or irresponsible parents and teachers cannot do that. The education system, especially schools, need a major revamp placing academic as well as emotional development of the child as its core concern.

Indra Munshi is the executive editor of the Indian Journal of Secularism, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai, and retired professor and head of the department of sociology, University of Mumbai.