Corporal punishment is still practised in our educational institutions presumably for correcting children’s behaviour, disciplining them or facilitating their learning process.

But several studies on the psychology of schoolchildren and their mental growth have indicated that the despicable nuisance has rather adverse effects on the overall person-ality of the child. It breaches the child’s self-respect, self-dignity and mental as well as physical integrity.

Corporal punishment is not only exercised in educational institutions, it but also widely used to discipline children at home.

Studies done by Save the Children and the UNICEF have found that there are some 43 types of punishments used in schools and 28 in homes in Pakistan. The most common home punishments are hitting the child with an object (shoe, rod, stone, brick, etc.) slapping, kicking, punching, pulling hair and twisting ears. The most common school punishments also include slapping, hitting with an object, pulling hair, twisting ears as well as making one sit or stand in awkward and humiliating positions.

According to Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA), four out of five children are vulnerable to physical abuse from parents, elders and teachers with boys undergoing physical abuse more than the girls.

“Corporal punishment is considered as an acceptable way to discipline children in Pakistan, something that is quite unfortunate. Beating and degradation of children has plagued the education system of the country,” said Farhat Mansoob, a well-known educationist and author of school textbooks.

The severity of the scourge is much higher in rural areas than urban areas, she points out. Corporal punishment in educational institutions is, among others, a major cause for the drop-out of students from schools. The pervasive violent behaviour that we see among many people today is also a repercussion of persisting corporal punishment in our society.

Education psychologist Asghar Soomro, who works for an NGO promoting education in Pakistan, said that corporal punishment is considered humiliating by the schoolchildren, instilling fear in their minds. It ruins their self-confidence, damaging their ability to ask questions in class.

“All this seriously affects the child’s learning abilities and makes him/her docile and nervous,” he added while also pointing out that the unfavourable situation forces most students to drop out of schools.

Instead of creating situations for schoolchildren to miss school, they need to be provided with a congenial environment, where they are given several opportunities to further their analytical skills and critical thinking. For, children are inherently creative and inquisitive.

More than 35,000 (33 per cent) of the total enrolled children in schools across the country drop out of schools every year, while nearly 50 per cent of them run off owing to the prevalent corporal punishment.

According to World Bank findings, boys in Pakistan  on average receive only five years of schooling while the girls average 2.5 years.

However, the dropout rate is constant as corporal punishment, uninspiring or dull teaching/learning conditions and failure to make educational facilities attractive in government-run schools over the last three decades has led to a dismal outlook for the youth of the country.

Child psychologists have already underlined a need to eliminate such practices of teaching and learning and replace them with modern and effective teaching methods as that would have more far-reaching positive impacts on making the society non-violent. They arguably believe that only those teachers exercise violence against children, who are incompetent, ill-trained and cannot handle or adapt to different situations.

The teacher’s role has taken a considerable shift in modern classrooms. No more are they the pillars of knowledge. Instead, they are being described as facilitators in assimilating knowledge and helping the students differentiate between right and wrong.

“There is a pressing need that our schools, public schools in particular, emerge as symbols of hope and learning instead of becoming haunting places for the students,” remarked Iqbal Ahmed Detho of the Society for Protection of Rights of the Child (SPARC).

He said that teachers also needed to change their mode of teaching. They should entice students towards studies by instilling in their minds the fruitful outcomes of education on their lives while comparing it to the miserable lives of illiterates.

Haider W. Yaqoob, the country head of PLAN Pakistan, has organised different programmes for raising awareness among the teachers about their changing roles in modern classrooms and the adverse outcomes of corporal punishment on the child’s overall personality development as well as his role in the post schooling social life.

He suggested that there was also a need to encourage the teachers to avoid awarding physical and mental punishments to the students and to rather adopt a friendly attitude towards them.

There are many who say that it is the government’s job to weed out the scourge of corporal punishment.

“The responsibility to curb corporal punishment at all levels lies on the shoulders of the government. And stakeholders such as police, civil society organisations and the public should be expected only to make coordinated endeavours to ensure thatstudents are not subjected to it,” said Zia Awan, a prominent human rights activist.

Sindh’s Special Secretary for Education, Waseem Ahmed Ursani, said it is high time that all concerned stakeholders came up with out-of-the-box remedial measures for the elimination of this social malady.

“Prohibition of the corporal punishment draft bill to eradicate the social malady has been hammered out in consultation with key stakeholders and members of the civil society organisations working in the education sector. The bill has also been shared with law experts and the concerned provincial government officials for their input. Besides, formation of a committee has been announced to speed up work on the bill so that it is moved in the Sindh Assembly for approval in a timely manner,” he said.

The draft bill seeks prohibition of the corporal punishment in all forms and in all settings, and its commitment is liable to legal action under the Pakistan Penal Code 1860 and other respective laws.

Educationist Farhat Mansoob believes that the menace can be brought to an end by enforcing the draft bill in its true spirit.

She argues, “Merely issuing directives and instructing teachers not to exercise corporal punishment will not amount to prohibiting corporal punishment in its true sense. However, the legislation should be approved and enacted in time.”

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The world is increasingly becoming interconnected —from science to sports to music, new concepts and ideas cross borders instantly. Latest technological inventions, new advancements in health, international business dimensions and more people opting for immigration have made the world a global village. To cope with this interconnectivity, our students need to transform into global students (having a global outlook and global skills) so that they can interact smoothly with diverse people and cultures.So who is a global student? What are his characteristics and competencies? Well, to begin with, a global student is a student who is prepared to succeed in today’s interconnected world. He is interested to know how the world works. He possesses an enquiring mind to critically evaluate the local, regional and global significance of the issues being taught in the classroom and looks for creative solutions. He believes in participating to turn his ideas into actions. A global student celebrates diversity and believes he can make a difference in the world.Then how do we transform our local students into global students? This can be done by introducing student-centred learning in the classrooms. Student-centred learning emphasises that the students are made the heart of classroom activities and the learning process. They are given the ownership of classroom learning so that they are inspired to think, discuss, question and further investigate the subject matter. This induces in them a sense of responsibility and self-motivation and they are able to retain and reproduce the outcomes of an activity for longer periods. Student-centred learning enables the students to understand why learning about a particular subject is important, how does it affect them and what can be the possible solutions.When student-centred learning is applied in the classrooms, the teacher can simultaneously facilitate the students in linking their local issues and perceptions with the global issues and perceptions—introducing an international dimension to the learning process. Here’s an example of how student-centred learning can develop globally-aware students.Consider observing grade IV’s science lesson. The classroom has 40 students who are learning about “environmental pollution”. Since the science class is student-focused, the teacher is acting more like a facilitator, stimulating discussions by asking open-ended questions. The students are introduced to the concept of environmental pollution and are urged to investigate the local and regional sources of environmental pollution. Once they’ve done so, the teacher then supports them in linking the local pollution sources with the global sources, helping them understand that pollution is not only their country’s problem, but a global problem.This global problem would lead the students to explore the harmful effects of pollution around the world, automatically driving them into action, by designing and implementing solutions. The students could resolve to stop littering, install more bins in their vicinities or could even draft a letter to the local government during their English class, asking the officials to take heed of the environmental problem. By doing so, our students have transformed into global students—who believe that they can make a difference at the local and international level.Though student-centred learning produces globally responsible citizens, it may happen that not all the students are equally interested in the class lesson—meaning they wouldn’t put sincere efforts in gathering and analysing data. Therefore, it’s advisable if the teacher makes modifications in the lessons, so it can cater to every child’s intellectual and emotional needs.The teacher would also need to constantly channel the student’s thinking in the right direction while not over-shadowing the discussions. The teacher must ensure that the student-centred environment is comfortable, respectful, creative, fun and gives each student an equal chance to participate. n