Title: The Analysis and Management of Ill-Discipline in Primary And Secondary Schools At
Ngaka Modiri Molema District In The North West Province.
Concept clarification
The primary and secondary public schools under Ngaka Modiri Molema District are facing a
prevalent proliferation issue of refractory. The indiscipline of these learners play a vital role in
deteriorating optimal performance in the district. The school management team members
(SMT) are trying by all mean to reprimand and elucidate the school policies upon the learners
to mitigate the indiscipline in their respective school. However, there is no improvement in it.
If this issue is not controlled and managed effectively, what will become of Ngaka Modiri
Molema District? In this research we will ascertain factors causing ill-discipline in the district.
Keywords: ascertain, district, refractory
LITERATURE REVIEW (1200-1500)
Introduction
During the Bantu Education in the Republic of South African (RSA) schools corporal
punishment was instituted to instill discipline upon learners and it was satisfactory. Since the
abolishment of corporal/physical punishment by the Department of Education in South Africa,
various school have started to experience tremendous ill-discipline upon learners during
lesson presentations and in the school premises (Padayachee & Gcelu, 2022:1). In Ngaka
Modiri Molema District is one of the districts encountering major refractoriness of learners.
The proliferation of this behavior deteriorates the quality of education in the district since the
academic performance is deplorable. In this research we will focus on factors that cause illdiscipline in North West Province at Ngaka Modiri Molema District public schools. The
research aims to ascertain how do child-rearing and environmental factors effects
contribute to learners’ ill-discipline in the school?the effect of ADHD on learners,
evaluate the impact of substance abuse on learner behavior, and the contribution of
teachers towards poor classroom management .
Body
How do child-rearing and environmental factors effects contribute to learners’ illdiscipline in the school?
The cardinal education for everyone begins at home from the day they are born, in order for
schools to have disciplined learners it means they must cooperate with the parents/caregivers
of the learners by encouraging them to support and reprimand bad behavior and aggrandize
their ethical skills and good morals. However, not all parents possess good parental skills so
in order for them to outmaneuver this, good parental skills need to be imbued to the parents
by experts. Molonsina and Galefolorwe (2018:132) agree that the knowledge and skills
pertaining to children to become productive children in their lives it is passed upon them by
parents and family members.
Furthermore, besides child rearing, as children grow up there are other external factors that
also need to be considered which are environmental factors that may panjandrum the behavior
of learners. A child can be well raised and also home given enough support in all his/her
positive endeavors. However, environmental factors may contribute immensely in the
disruption of children’s behavior. Wu et al. (2022:5) postulate that exposure to excessive noise
in children leads to a high response in their sympathetic nervous system which is related to
disruption in behavior. Consequently, parents need good education on such information to
hinder the menace sound can cause to their children’s behavior. Moreover, the exposure to
substance abuse by learners at primary and high school levels is a major cause of indiscipline
and reduction of productivity of learners (Ongwe, 2016:24). Therefore, the indiscipline of
schools in Ngaka Modiri Molema District may be a result of exposure to drug abuse.
The effect of ADHD on learners
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) it is a neurodevelopment disorder,
which affects children in most cases, and this can affect their whole life, such as
learning in school or doing any activity for that matter. Learners in public schools
usually their parents are not aware of their children disorder, because ADHD is
characterized by hyperactivity and inability to pay attention for required or necessary
time, the parents believe it is a child being a child, and the disorder will be usually be
picked up by the educator in the classroom when the learner is continuously being
disruptive or cannot focus in class, not only for one lesson but for many occasions
(Klingberg et al.2005).
The learner being hyper in the classroom and disruptive in the learning
environmental can be very detrimental to the teacher’s lesson. The teacher instead
of teaching, some of his or her time will be spent to trying to get the class in order,
because when one learner has ADHD, his inattentive and their ability to be disruptive
in the classroom affects every learner (Barkley 1997). The educator in the classroom
might not be able to complete the lesson planned in the lesson plan and these is not
a learning challenge that affects a learner, it also becomes a teaching challenge for
the educator.
ADHD might not be an issue of discipline, but the issue of disorder which makes
learning complicated as the learners are impulsive and disruptive in the classroom,
this may cause other learners in the class to be disrupted, and the learners who lack
discipline might take advantage of the moment to cause chaos in the classroom
(Lefever et al. 2002). Therefore, the teacher will not acquire the results he or she is
aiming for, as the continuous disruption leads to poor academic performance on the
learners. As ADHD some might see it as an issue of disorder, but it sparks discipline
on the older learners in the classroom, and will indirectly cause other learners to be
undisciplined due to a learner who has ADHD.
Evaluation of the impact of substance abuse on learner behavior
Substance abuse by learners has a direct positive correlation with acts of ill-discipline
and appetitive aggression in educational contexts (Latimer et al., 2003:1). A range of
criminal acts including bullying, violence and affiliation with deviant groups are the
case where adolescents engage in illicit substances. According to Layland et al.
(2022:1) a significant number of learners are of the view that high school era is the
perfect time to experiment with substances that alter one’s state of mind or engage in
risky behaviour. Risky sexual behaviours which cause sexual transmitted infections
are likely and learners need to realise gravity of implications that may occur when their
intoxicated in school premises. Layland et al. (2022:1) claims that learners who use
substances absent themselves to schools or go out during lessons to take drugs, this
compromises the achieving of lesson of lesson outcomes and leads to poor academic
performance.
Taylor et al. (2017:2) argue that it is usually young male adolescent males in schools
who engage in substance abuse and consequently violent behaviour while Layland et
al. (2022:1) claims that while the misconduct is frequent in males, the gender
proportions vary depending on the drugs the learners are using. Regardless of the
gender that is affiliated with drug use and behaviours that disrupt academic proceeds
in school, the behavioural and cognitive implications of these acts compromise
academic records and standards of schools. There is also a misconception that rural
areas has fewer cases of drug abuse by learners compared to urban areas and this
results in less attention given to the same crisis in rural areas (Latimer et al., 2003:2).
Investigate the teachers’ poor classroom management skills contribution towards
learner mischief.
Plenty of teacher in education are not trained to deal with misbehaviour in their teacher
preparation tutorials in their initial years in their classrooms. They might find themselves
requiring to know how to assist a teacher who comes to them in need of a support for bad
management of classroom (Lazarides, & Watt, et al., 2020:10). Poor class management with
more frequent negative effect, less active engagement, learner misbehaviour, more downtime,
and very less learning. Additionally, challenging behaviour begins as mild then grows
gradually over time, grows into multiple substantial crisis. Lack of class management can
develop in different ways during the school years of learners, and this can lead to different
undesirable objectives, not the minimum of which is a poor learning (Wolff, & Jarodzka, et al.,
2021:131). Although effective teaching is at the heart of teaching, but teachers’ contribution
towards poor classroom management is due to inconsistently communicating and reinforcing
their expectations; paying attention to punitive and reactive approaches, which have bad
consequences; having unstructured classroom setting includes unintentional physical
arrangements
that
promote
misbehaviour
as
well
as
lacking
consistent,
clear
methods/procedures and routines for dynamics of a classroom; teaching learners without or
with little active engagement for most them; and also poor approaches for reinforcing and
enhancing relevant learner behavior within a classroom (Shank & Santiague, 2022:26-34).
Enhancing how a teacher manages his/her class is a great privilege for a teacher and also the
learner. Most of the times training alone is not enough to implement change in action, instead,
the department must secure teachers’ training and allocate them with materials, use walkthrough tool or class management assessment, give critical reflection concerning follow-up
support, and link them with a peer mentor or coach. Acquiring relevant support will allow all
teachers to learn the required skills for managing their classrooms very well (Kurniawaty, &
Daeng, et al., 2023:9). If they get used to the basic classroom management approaches, the
total learner behaviour will be more likely to be acceptable. However, there are still chances
of having certain learners who will need extra behavioural supports, and that is where certain
low-intensity approaches, like giving choices or using requests high probability requests might
be put in place (Franklin, & Harrington, 2019).
Summary
Though there have been many debates about the discipline of the learners in
schools, it has come to light that behaviour of the learners is influenced by many
factors and this has many negative impacts on the learning and psychological
wellbeing. The last decade we witnessed the drop in South African public schools,
we have seen cases of learners being disruptive and violent to teachers as well as
their peers in school environment. Learners are faced with challenges, mental
disorders which causes them to act a certain way not allowed in schools, some are
dealing with peer pressure, and this cause the learner to use narcotic substances
which might stir up conflict in the classroom and affect learning, and sometimes it is
the poor training of the teacher, the teacher has poor management of the classroom
which leads to the learners taking advantage and being mischievous. It is because of
these reasons the is conflict and too much failing in the public schools, the parents,
the department of education should adopt regulations and procedures to help our
fellow teachers and the struggling public schools.
END OF LITERATURE REVIEW
Problem Statement (200-250)
Research plan
Title: The Analysis And Management Of Ill-Discipline In Primary And Secondary Schools At
Kgaka Modiri Molele District In The North West Province.
Research Topic: Managing Discipline In School.
Research Question: Why there is a lack of discipline in North West Province at Ngaka Modiri
Molema district public school?
Other option
Research Question: What are the factors causing ill-discipline in North West province at
Ngaka Modiri Molema district public schools?
Sub-question.
: How does ADHD affect learners?
: How does substance abuse contribute to learner behavior?
: How does culture negatively affect the behavior of learners?
: How do child-rearing and environmental factors effects contribute to learners’
ill-discipline in the school?
: How do teachers contribute to poor classroom management skills?
Research Aim: To ascertain the factors causing a lack of discipline in Northwest province in
the Ngaka Modiri Molema district public school.
Research Objectives:
1. To investigate the effect of ADHD on learners.
2. To evaluate the impact of substance abuse on learner behavior.
3. To explore negative ways in which culture affects learner behavior.
4. To investigate the teachers’ contribution towards poor classroom management skills.
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