Public opinion remains sharply divided on whether to reintroduce corporal punishment in schools, particularly following the massive failures in last year’s national Form IV examinations.
Those in support of the government’s decision argue that applying strokes of the cane will make students more disciplined and more attentive to their teachers, thus enhancing their performance in exams and studies in general.
The argument on the contrary is that ‘discipline’ resulting from beating can only be fear resulting from terror and would make students less attentive and more likely to do ever worse in their studies.
Miriam John, a parent based in Dar es Salaam, said she supports the use of corporal punishment “because I am sure most students will reform for fear of disgracing themselves if caned before the very eyes of the schoolmates”.
“When the government banned corporal punishment, there was a rise in the prevalence of misbehaviour among students, leading to a drop in attendance, academic performance and discipline generally,” she said.
Ramadhani Justine, a student at St Mathews Secondary School in the city, meanwhile described the use of the cane as “one of the most effective ways of shaping students’ discipline and general conduct”.
He added that if they are not beaten, students will have contempt and arrogance against the teachers. However, he warned that it was important for the punishment to be “regulated” – including setting the maximum number of strokes of the cane to be administered.
Digna Peter, a teacher in Kilimanjaro Region, also recommended corporal punishment as the appropriate way to change students’ behaviour.
She said it was “the only punishment we know that can scare students into good behaviour”.
She said banning the punishment would leave students free to conduct themselves as they please because they will be assured that they would go unpunished.
“Teachers are guardians of students and they would normally not the cane as a way of harassing or mistreating the students, but only to effectively prepare an ethical generation for the future,” she noted.
Argues Megan Randall, a former US volunteer who taught in a local school for three years, differs.
She believes corporal punishment affects students negatively, adding: “It reduces their self-esteem and overall confidence to succeed. It causes physical pain and emotional, long-lasting scarring.”
“On the whole, it motivates students to fear learning, to abhor their teachers and be dreadful of failing,” she intimated to this paper in a recent interview.
She advised that learning out of fear is never as healthy or successful as doing so “out of a realistic and encouraged ability to succeed”.
Instead, she in support of positive encouragement, role modeling and learning environments in which students are told “you can do it”.
Beatings to augment students’ performance are wrong and misguided “because it is a reactive strategy to their failing rather than a proactive way to encourage them to learn and succeed”, she notes.
According to her, beating doesn’t teach or show students what to do to succeed or clarify what they should have known for a test, “but merely highlights how they shouldn’t behave and that they did something wrong”.
A Dar es Salaam-based philosophy don who preferred anonymity said children learn from whatever adults do and whatever happens in society, and beating seldom induces positive change in their behaviour but can only breed resentment and anger.
A recent global study by Plan International, revealed that many children abandoned school because of punishments, which include hitting pupils with hands or sticks, making them stand in various positions for long periods and even tying them to chairs.
Out of 13 countries which were the subjects of the research, India was ranked third in terms of the estimated economic cost of corporal punishment.
Plan reckons that between $1.4bn and $7.4bn was being lost every year in India in social benefits because of school violence.
The cost is based on estimates of how the larger economy is affected by the impact of corporal punishment on pupils' attendance and academic performance.
Children have the right to protection from all forms of violence, abuse and maltreatment. Corporal punishment in any setting is a violation of that right.
Physical and other forms of humiliating and abusive treatment are not only a violation of the child’s right to protection from violence, but also counter-productive to learning, the study says.
“Corporal punishment in all settings wherever the child is, should be banned through legislation, in line with the recommendations in the UN study on violence against Children.
Any form of violence against children is never justifiable or acceptable. It teaches the child that violence is acceptable and so perpetuates the cycle of violence, the study says.
Karin Hulshof a UNICEF Representative says: “Eliminating corporal punishment in all settings is also a key strategy for reducing and preventing all forms of violence in society."
Last month the government said it was contemplating reintroducing corporal punishment in schools in a move meant to enhance discipline.
Education and Vocational Training deputy minister Philip Mulugo said the scraping of corporal punishment in schools had resulted in misbehaviour by many students and hence the massive failures in last year’s Form Four exams.
But Randall argues that corporal punishment, though not bad, shouldn’t be used as the first punishment for minor mistakes.
“Even though corporal punishment was illegal during the time when I was a teacher in Tanzania, it was still the most popular method of chastisement and widely used by all teachers and administration in schools,”
she noted, adding: “Hence, obviously, even though corporal punishment was being used, it clearly didn’t do anything positive to ensure students’ high performance on their tests.”
SOURCE:
THE GUARDIAN
