February 04, 2007

THE use of corporal punishment in schools is a huge legal and emotional issue. Around the world, due to the failure of the school administration to inculcate discipline in children, corporal punishment is a major part of the latter’s schooling experience. Teachers regularly hit children to maintain classroom discipline and to punish them for poor academic performance. The infliction of corporal punishment is often arbitrary and brutal. In extreme cases, teachers hitting children have often caused the latter to drop out of schools along with the fact that they have been left permanently disfigured and/or disabled.

Despite widespread condemnation of corporal punishment by various human rights organisations, it is practiced in many countries legally. A study presented to the UN General Assembly by the World Health Organisation (Who) points out that in many countries, caning is a standard practice in schools. In fact, corporal punishment is permissible in 145 countries. Only 16 countries have forbidden corporal punishment at home and around 100 lack the mechanism to make sure it is not practiced in schools.

Sweden set a good example for other nations when, in 1979, it became the first country in the world by passing the “no corporal punishment law” to prohibit the use of such disciplinary measures in schools.

According to one educationist, requesting anonymity, “A teacher’s attributes and behaviour determine a child’s personality. Physical punishment hinders learning and can cause irreparable psychological damage, including lack of confidence and self-esteem. Social change, ruthless competition for financial gains, etc., has changed whole scenario, thus generating incompetent teachers. Only an incompetent teacher uses corporal punishment for the purpose of class discipline.”

What is worse is the fact that most media channels in Pakistan attribute such behaviour to the mental imbalance of teachers which is far from the truth. It is also unfortunate that private schools also encourage this practice. Most teachers are inclined to think that the immediate end-result of punishment is usually to put a stop to the “offence”, prevent its recurrence and set an example for others. However, this does not always work.

Is spanking a child for breaking school rules a useful or destructive practice? There is no simple answer to this question as parents and educators remain divided on this issue. It is worth mentioning the Sindh Education Ministry (August 2004) and Punjab Education Ministry (December 2000) here, both of which prohibited corporal punishment in schools throughout the respective provinces. Such a ban was important step because it attempted to educate children and their caregivers that other alternatives exist for correcting unacceptable behaviour. However, many schools chose to ignore it and in 2005, a school boy’s arm was fractured in Sargodha because the school’s principal and two teachers hit him brutally. Thus, the Punjab Education Ministry issued directives to all private and public sector educational institutes that in case of non-compliance, disciplinary action would be taken against teachers.

According to reliable sources, a revised version of the law would give more power disciplinary committees against government employees involved in corruption, embezzlement or misconduct. In this spirit, the Punjab government has implemented a law against corporal punishment in government schools because it is one of the main causes of a high drop-out rate. Misconduct has been clearly defined as both major and minor offences which would make it quite easy for tribunals to categorise the accused, thus holding the Punjab education department employees accountable for their actions.

Corporal punishment as per section 89 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) is allowed for children less than 12 years provided that such punishment does not inflict injuries. In that case, the perpetrator can be prosecuted under sections 323 and 325 of the PPC. Recent cases, however, show that the law is clearly not being implemented and the so-called safeguards for children are not very effective. One of the most extreme cases of corporal punishment was reported in a Shadbagh school, when 11-year-old Qaisar was beaten to death by his teacher. A similar incident occurred at the Government Girls’ High School, Dry Port, where a class six student, Gulnaz, was not wearing the proper uniform and was allegedly beaten by the English teacher, who broke the metacarpus of her right hand.

One wonders why the teacher and principal of the school were not held accountable for this offence. Free education does not mean that teachers should be allowed to treat kids as punching bags.

The All Pakistan Teachers’ Association President, Azam Butt, when asked to comment on the subject, said, “Teachers are like parents…there is no harm inflicting light punishment to correct students. Sometimes, teachers have to act as modifiers of student’s behaviour. It brings allegiance to teachers, order in the classrooms and provides a safer environment for schools. Qaisar died because he was hungry. As far as Gulnaz is concerned, the teacher was probably mentally disturbed but the government damaged the reputation and honour of the teacher by implementing strict rules… this policy has demoralised teachers.”

One wonders how banning corporal punishment can damage a teacher’s reputation when they are not following the law? Parents don’t usually beat their children to death or break their limbs so it is futile to compare them with teachers. How can teachers claim the law demoralises their status when they habitually abuse kids?

Captain (retd) Zahid Saeed, special secretary schools at the Punjab Education Department, says, “Corporal punishment falls in the category of major offences. Alternatives to corporal punishment have proven their worth, which teach children to be self-disciplined rather than cooperative only because of fear. Such alternatives can be parent/teacher conferences about student behaviour, detention, in-school suspension, etc. Punjab Government will not be lenient on the issue and has decided, under the revised Punjab Removal from Service Act (PRSA), to award tougher sentences to teachers inflicting corporal punishment on students.”

According to the Provisional education minister, Imran Masood, “Corporal punishment, both advocated and condemned, is an outdated form of discipline. Once banned, teachers start to pay attention to positive disciplining methods. Discipline is an important issue, a challenge for professionals because it takes a lot to manage class and keep students on the right track. We realise that teachers are losing the ability to control their classrooms, but banning corporal punishment can help them to change their attitude and opt for alternative methods of discipline.”

He strongly condemned Gulnaz’s incident and assured that such cases would not emerge in future. He said the culprit would be brought to book but, of course, providing evidence is imperative in this regard. However, such promises have often been broken.

The fact of the matter is that banning corporal punishment may not solve the problem of violence against students until teachers change their behaviour. The government has to chalk out training programmes so that teachers know a child’s psychology and use non-violent methods to discipline children.

It is time, to put into practice, alternatives that have proven successful. While the government is committed to ensuring “Education for All”, such acts encourage students to drop out of school altogether. The system should be held accountable and due processes of law set in motion to bring the guilty to book.

The writer is a freelance contributor

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