A teacher takes students of upper primary classes to the District Court, after…
2023
A teacher takes students of upper primary classes to the District Court, after finishing the lesson on ‘Criminal Justice System’. Which of the following objectives is/are most appropriate for the visit?
A. To provide experience of the functioning of courts and interact with lawyers, judges and staff on the roles they play.
B. To show the challenges of seeking justice and create awe of the system.
C. To scare students by showing difficulties faced by those implicated in various cases and encourage law keeping.
Choose the correct option:
- A.
Only C
- B.
Only B
- C.
A, B and C
- D.
Only A
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Educational field visits are grounded in experiential, child-centred pedagogy: their purpose is to let learners directly experience how a real institution functions and interact with the people who run it, so that concepts already taught in class become concrete and well understood. Section 17 of the RTE Act, 2009 explicitly bars physical punishment and mental harassment of children, so fear-based teaching methods conflict with this child-protective principle, and NCF 2005/2023 place first-hand, meaningful engagement at the centre of experiential learning rather than fear or manufactured awe.
Applying this to the three stated aims: providing hands-on exposure to court proceedings and letting students talk to lawyers, judges and staff about their roles builds exactly this kind of authentic, functional understanding of the Criminal Justice System lesson already covered in class. Positioning the trip as a way to inspire awe of the system, or as a scare tactic to frighten students into law-abiding behaviour, both abandon understanding-building in favour of emotional manipulation, which is not an accepted objective of a school field visit.
Only B (create awe): mystifies the court system instead of helping students understand its functioning -- awe is not the same as comprehension.
Only C (scare students): uses fear of legal trouble as a disciplining tool, which is explicitly against child-friendly, rights-respecting pedagogy.
A, B and C together: folds the fear- and awe-based aims in with the sound one, which wrongly treats intimidation and mystification as valid alongside genuine experiential learning.
Only the objective of gaining direct experience of court functioning and interacting with its functionaries about their roles meets the standard for a sound educational field visit, so that is the correct objective.