PESHAWAR, April 14: Speakers at an orientation workshop on Saturday called for replacement of corporal punishment at schools with alternative methods of guidance, saying beating leaves deep psychological and physical impacts on students.

The daylong workshop on ‘Problem solving mechanism in schools for elimination of corporal punishment’ was organised by Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc) at Provincial Institute for Teacher Education (PITE) here.

The workshop was attended by around 100 Education Department officials and teachers from different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to a news release issued by Sparc.

Program manager of Sparc Imran Takkar educated participants on corporal punishment, its types and negative impacts on children both physical and psychological, and also spoke about its reasons and alternatives.

He said all problems causing corporal punishment could be easily solved through a mechanism of guidance and counseling. He said through community participation, corporal punishment could be eliminated from schools.

Mr Takkar said proper counseling of students could be a valuable alternative to corporal punishment but unfortunately, teachers had mostly been relying on corporal punishment as a mean of guiding students.