Hardly a day passes without a shocking incident reported from a school in some part of the country. During the past few years, there have been several reports of schoolchildren taking their lives. It was only the other day that a schoolboy assaulted a principal with an iron rod for being asked to have a haircut. Then there was a report that three boys had taken to cannabis or ganja and dropped out of school. Yesterday, we reported that three schoolgirls found drunk in school had been expelled. Today, we report that 40 schoolchildren (20 boys and 20 girls) were taken into custody by the police for misbehaving in a children's park in Kalutara on Sunday and released after being chided.

What has gone wrong with our children? Indiscipline, it may be argued, is not something uncommon in schools, but the situation has certainly taken a turn for the worse. The kneejerk reaction of the education authorities is to punish the deviant child and bury their heads in the sand. Punishment may help deal with indiscipline to some extent but the vexed problem we are confronted with seems to defy such stock remedies. In attempting to find a lasting solution, we ought to admit that the education system is rotten to the core.

What ails our education system is that it hardly prepares the child for meeting challenges in life. Children are taught in preschool where they are supposed to play but not in school where they are supposed to learn. Most schools have outsourced education to the private sector. Teachers no longer play the role of counsellors. Nor are there professional counsellors available in schools to help children who are wary of confiding their problems to their parents. Some teachers scare them out of their wits when they happen to do something wrong and even drive them to suicide. The examination system has become an instrument of torture for children who are tested for what they do not know rather than what they know. It is nothing but a miracle that children remain sane after going through the hoops at the Grade Five Scholarship examination to gain admission to the so-called popular schools. But, their sanity surely does not survive the GCE (A/L) examination if university students' insane behaviour is any indication.

Where their physical comfort is concerned, they are denied even the rights that animals enjoy. If a lorry is overloaded with cattle, its driver gets arrested for cruelty to animals and fined. But, look at the rickety contraptions that pass for school vans carrying children squashed like sardines. They are mobile torture chambers. But who cares?

Little wonder children are not at peace with themselves. So, how can they be at peace with the rest of the world?

New Minister of Education Bandula Gunawardena is said to be working on education reforms. Education, no doubt, needs reforms but let it be reformed in such a way that children will be free from torture and have enough time for themselves to enjoy their childhood fully and grow up as healthy men and women devoid of frustration.

Discipline must be maintained in schools and punishment meted out to those who deserve it. But, that alone has been no remedy as experience shows. The root causes of indiscipline need to be obviated if schools are to become better places. Easing the burden the present education system has placed on children and helping them cope with their psychological as well as other problems through proper counselling are of crucial import in this regard.