Recently, I was watching a talk show on a local channel in which the anchor cited a study. According to it, a majority of the school children who drop out of school do so due to maltreatment by their teachers.

Teachers, who have the responsibility for grooming and educating an entire generation of young people, sometimes resort to high-handedness and take advantage of their superior status in comparison to the vulnerability of the students. The school-going children who belong to lower socio-economic groups might not have the required support system at home and thus eventually quit.

This attitude of teachers is not only displayed in schools that cater to students from the lower income class but even in some prestigious schools where the children may find themselves victims of unfair and harsh behaviour by their teachers. While a minority should not be allowed to give a bad name to others, the display of such irresponsibility by teachers has far-reaching consequences for the students and their respective careers.

Some teachers also single out one or more students at different prestigious colleges and universities across the country and make them suffer as they are weak in one area or the other. The responsibility to encourage students who lack a certain faculty lies on the teacher but in most cases the students discover it’s the other way round.

For example, Samra, who joined the most prestigious business school in the city, found herself a victim of such high handedness. She had developed a depressive disorder a couple of years before joining the school; nonetheless she managed to clear the stringent admission criterion. At her school, a senior instructor would single her out for lack of class participation and made fun of her on another occasion while he was delivering the lecture to the class.

Teachers, here, also have the responsibility for encouraging or supporting a student who might be suffering from a disability or disorder that may be physical or mental in nature. “Sometimes it’s the ungainly appearance of a student that makes him/her the victim of a teacher’s apathy,” points out Hafsa, a student. “I remember once there was an overweight student in our MBA class and the dean who taught us that particular course made him feel ashamed by asking him his weight during the course of the lesson.”

In most cases students feel powerless when a faculty member displays such behaviour. The parents also tend to ignore such instances and do not indulge in confrontation with the higher authorities in universities. Such attitude towards the student where they have to bear sarcastic remarks or are taunted by their teachers has far-reaching effects. It does no good for a student’s personality or career. Instead of being encouraged and treated respectfully, such students become victims of the most unfortunate and belittling behaviour at the hands of the practitioners of the most noble profession in the world. They develop a poor self-esteem, which affects all areas for the rest of their lives and they lose interest in their studies. They might also indulge in some risky behaviour and develop tendencies to harm themselves and others, one such example being of students who attempt suicide. Similarly instances where students have resorted to campus crimes are not unheard of.

Uzma, who now teaches at a university, explains how she as a student, has been a victim of unfair behaviour by teachers on two or three occasions. Now that she is a teacher herself she tries not to subject any of her students to sarcastic remarks or harsh comments in spite of the fact that some of the students in her class have repeated the course more than once. “Sometimes it is tempting to be sarcastic towards the students, given the fact that I also went through the same thing. But I try very hard not to single out one or two students during the class and be fair to everyone,” she says.

Teachers like Uzma who are sensitive towards the needs of different students in the class are, no doubt, a dwindling category in this competitive world. “If a student is a high scorer and does well in all other activities, then there are fewer chances that he/she will be made the victim,” says Ali Hassan, a university student. In no circumstances do teachers at any stage of education have the right to belittle students, single him/her out or treat them disrespectfully. As for cases, where the student needs some counseling or help, a special time should be arranged so that personal and academic problems can be discussed and resolved accordingly.