Making the House System more effective in Schools

Making the house system more effective in Schools

“When you introduce competition into the public school system, most studies show that schools start to do better when they are competing for students.”                                – Bill Cosby.

The objective of education is to bring desirable changes in the behavior of a student, and the focus is all round development. Co-curricular and extra-curricular activities play an important role in grooming the latent qualities of the students. These activities are organized in almost all schools in some way or the other. In most of the schools, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities are conducted through house system. The House system of school is of great importance to school life. This system brings out hidden talent of students and gives them opportunity to explore themselves & develops the spirit of healthy competition among students and promotes it within school. The inter – house activities give all students the opportunity to participate in various literary, Art & Craft, sport, music and other co-curricular activities with the aim of raising self-esteem, developing self-confidence and giving opportunities for leadership and teamwork beyond those already available within school. The main aim of the house system in schools is to accommodate more and more students and to inculcate competitiveness among them. House system apart from co-curricular activities, collectively can be used for engaging students in social welfare works, academic projects etc.

The House system began in boarding schools of England later it spread across globe during colonial period. Initially in England, boarding schools were literally having houses for the students to live in and various activities were conducted to engage students. Nowadays all schools (not only boarding schools) have house names, but no physical houses mandatorily. In house system, a school is divided into a number of houses (generally four) and each student is allocated to one house and competitions are organized at primary & secondary levels. These house competitions are organized weekly in front of all the students of the school during the last two periods called as co-curricular activities (CCA) periods. Each house has a cross section of the students in the school i.e. one-fourth from each class & age group. The reason for dividing students in houses is to divide a large group of students into smaller groups which ensures more individual attention and support to students. Students would strongly identify with their house and there would be regularly inter house competitions in co-curricular activities and sports etc. Once a student has been allocated to a house they usually stay with the house for years in school but sometimes their houses may be changed due to school change or any other administrative reasons. Houses may compete with one another in co-curricular activities, sports and maybe in other ways, thus providing a focus for group behavior or teamwork. Each house would have an in-charge teacher of the house called House Master/Mistress and a few teachers as committee members from different subjects/ streams to assist students in various activities. House masters appoint House Captains, Vice Captains, and other house prefects, who exercise limited authority within the house and assist in other school activities. Houses are named after saints, freedom fighters, leaders, colors and geographical identities etc. and are a matter of pride for associated students and teachers.

House system creates a positive school culture that focus on lifting each other up. Houses should be assigned to students on random basis and house masters, teachers should also be assigned a house on random basis to lead and assist students through lottery/ opening envelopes/ picking chits for selection to remove all prejudices. Then students should be asked to take house uniforms as per their matching houses. Each house is a team that works together and students participate in various competitions to collect points for ranking. Houses may be given points for positive behaviors of students. Earned points are announced in morning assembly and displayed on score board of school on every week. So that all house members may take note of it and plan their participation accordingly. Participation by any specific student in competitions can be restricted so that maximum students can participate in competitions. At the end, CCA coordinator reveals the final points gained by all house and best house is awarded shield/trophy. Students scream, sing, cheer, chant, dance and smile and feel happy. The feeling of being a part of a certain house involves great pride. So on an overall perspective, house system can be said a pretty crucial to develop leadership quality, team work etc. among students.

Apart from many positive things in house system, it is criticized for not aligning with school spirit. Many students dislike it as they don’t have friends in their houses, therefore they don’t participate in a way that they would if they had friends to help them participating in competitions. Inter house rivalry and ego clash can be seen in house system. House system weakens bonding among class students and they have little less emotions with other house members during class reunions. In spite of unwillingness of a few students, school administration keep pushing them to actively participate in house activities as they think this will help younger students acclimate by being in a house with older students who will mentor them. The present system of organizing these competitions do not fulfill the main aim of house system and do not cater to the psychological needs and aptitude of the students of different age group and different interest and hobbies. They also lack in variety and as such do not suit to the tastes of students. Even the main idea of the mass participation is not fulfilled since the total numbers of the students in houses are very large. Only a few of them get a chance and majority of them are generally ignored. . In order to ensure maximum participation the present houses maybe divided into groups with specific names. The division in these groups should be made as per students’ interest and choice. Inter house competitions among these groups should be organized simultaneously to cover up wide variety of activities. The best of these may be given a chance to have repeat performance during morning assembly or any special occasion. To conclude it may be stressed that at no stage a child should be made a passive listener. His/ her active environment in the activity being organized can be insured only when it caters to his or her taste and effects and improvement in his or her behavior, even when the child is one among the audience. This can be possible only by affecting changes in the existing houses system by subdivisions as already mentioned.

Aims and Objectives of House System-

• to prepare a child responsible citizen, a constructive future leader and sensitive human being by inculcating in him the qualities of healthy competitiveness and active participatory environment in house activities.
• to develop peer relationships and fostering of community feeling among students.
• to make a child mentally aware, physically fit and intellectually sound by adjusting in the school family comprising of people of different walks of life.
• to make a child aware of the significance of accurate and specific means to achieve the end while interacting in competitive environment.
• to inculcate in a child the quality of team spirit and to make proper use of all the talents available in the house.
• to ensure vertical interaction among students, where the young look up to the elder and the elder look out for and support the younger.
• to motivate a child to be self-disciplined, self-reliant, self-responsible and broad mindedness while taking part in house activities.

As ours is a land of cultural diversity, all curricular and co curricular activities should be chalked and conducted in such a way that they ensure desired harmonious and emotional development of students and also to preserve basic values of our society. In this context the house system in schools become more significant as a means to achieve goal. The house system is the backbone of school activities and also the foundation of all round development of personality of a student. Therefore the house system must be made more effective. For making house system more effective we have to develop such strategies by which the system could best be utilized for achieving aims and objectives set by the school and also for a smooth running of the school.

Steps/ strategies to make house system more effective-

1. Students of house on duty maybe assigned duties for conducting morning assembly.
2. If possible house captain may be changed in a month or two, so that more and more children may get an opportunity to develop traits of leadership which will ultimately lead to self discipline in students.
3. House captains/ prefects could be assigned the task of maintaining discipline especially during morning assembly and interval.
4. House system could be effectively used for creating an atmosphere for healthy competitions during various co-curricular activities including cultural, literary activities, Club activities, games and sports etc.
5. Value education viz. honesty, sincerity, to give due regards to senior students, teachers and all elders could be imported during house meetings.
6. House of old students should not be changed every year. This develops a feeling of belongingness among the students for that house and ultimately such feeling of belongingness may be developed for the school and so on.
7. Some new types of competitions viz. paper reading on current topics, group discussion on any topic / present problem, which helps in personality development of the child, may be included.
8. Lastly success of any system program depends up on proper supervision and monitoring. So to ensure the active participation of housemasters and their associates, they may be asked to submit self appraisal regarding their contribution in such activities and the same maybe reflected in ACRs/ APARs.

Moreover the role of the School Principal, House Masters and judges are equally important. As principal is the hub of the school system, his role is equally significant in making the house system more effective. He has to conduct meeting of CCA in-charge and house masters in the beginning of the session and to make them aware of aims and objectives of house system, to finalize annual plan of house activities in the beginning of the session, to ensure the annual plan is executed properly and to supervise the functioning of house activities, & to provide all the requirement for organizing house activities. Role of CCA in-charge and House Masters is to select the competent House Captains/ Prefects with care and fairness, to ensure participation of all the students in one or other activities & to prepare the participants for different activities. Role of the Judges is so important that no program can be effectively without judgment. Therefore the judgment must be fair and impartial while judging the program and a judge must be specialized in particular field of house activities and the criteria of judgment must be explained to all participants well before start of the competition.

Written by :

Ambrish Kumar Gupta

Principal

Kendriya Vidyalaya Rajkot. Gujarat.

Email- akgkvs@gmail.com

Education- M.A. in Ancient Indian History & Archaeology, B.ED.

NET Qualified in History, Archaeology, Indian Culture.