JULY 15 — In the movie The Experiment (2010), starring Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker, a group of (normal) folks are paid to stay in a facility for some time.

They are divided into two pretend groups, prisoners and the police, and told to simply co-exist with each other for two weeks. Long and short, before the fortnight is over, this perfectly normal group of people degenerated into two warring tribes — based on the fake groups they are part of — hellbent on destroying each other.

Loosely based on a Stanford prison experiment in 1971, the movie depicted the way group identity, power and symbols can transform people’s thinking and behaviour.

I sometimes think about this movie when I’m told about school spot-checks, one of the time-honoured traditions of the Malaysian public education system.

This is when, about once a month, prefects and the disciplinary teacher will go from class to class confiscating anything and everything under the sun.

The process, if it was ever filmed, may shock the nation — but not the producers of The Experiment.

Students are commanded to stand up and move away from their desks and bags. The school prefects — usually the "cream” of the crop slash student "ambassadors” and representatives — would then do a thorough search of every students’ belongings and possessions as if the whole exercise was a manhunt and one or two students had stolen the crown jewels.

I can think of only two instances which the above resembles: Airport security and a prison. So, uh, are our students being treated like terrorists and inmates?

Are these spot-checks supposed to help with learning in a broad sense? What other reason is there for these spot-checks and confiscations then?

These "events” (where prefects "search” students and confiscate banned items) look as if we are teaching said prefects to take things away from innocent people without their consent.

In what other institution are members’ possessions (of such a trivial nature) forcefully removed from them by authority figures?

And what is the psychological impact on the students and prefects taking part in such checks? Would there not be shades of The Experiment creeping in?

The prefects are the cops, the students are the inmates. One has power, the other must just submit quietly; one’s the rule enforcer, the other’s a very likely rule-breaker. One represents authority, the other the masses.

Are these rules even logical?

I can fully understand spot-checks being conducted by the Ministry of Education on school toilets, documentation, teacher-training, etc. The key purpose of such checks is to ensure quality, cleanliness and so on.

But what is the purpose of banning wrist-bands, key-chains and, of course, smartphones which are not even turned on?

How does having a non-black hair band risk causing trouble? Are the school’s leaders afraid that students will fight over these things? It looks as if we’re preparing our children for the real world by ensuring and policing how equal all their private possessions need to be.

If the entire exercise is about uniformity and conformity, spot-checks are a weird way to go about promoting these qualities.

Again, what kind of message are we sending? What kind of student role model are we forming in prefects who are instructed to take things away from students?

If so then the message appears to be that, uh, learning is best done in the absence of anything which promotes individuality. I mean, if a school feels threatened by a pink wrist-band or an Oppo phone, is there still hope for an educational institution?

I hope as parents and teachers and educators we can speak out more. The whole world is rebelling against fascism — our public schools shouldn’t be taking the opposite route.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.