Corporal punishment gets thumbs down

The bill applies to public and private institutions but not to seminaries.

ISLAMABAD: In an effort to end corporal punishment in educational institutions, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Education has endorsed a bill that will allow suspension of a teacher found guilty of corporal punishment.

The draft bill, to be called Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Act, has been submitted by Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid’s (PML-Q) Attiya Inayatullah and applies to both public and private educational institutions. Committee members met on Monday at the Parliament House to discuss the bill, in a session chaired by committee chairperson Abid Sher Ali.

Senior officials of the education ministry opposed the bill, saying it could negatively impact the student-teacher relationship. But committee members, including Ali, supported the bill, saying there is no concept of corporal punishment in countries with 100 per cent literacy rates.

Committee members also debated whether the proposed law should apply to religious seminaries. But the committee did not press the issue after education ministry officials said that seminaries fall under the interior ministry’s jurisdiction.

The committee chairperson has forwarded the draft law to the ministries of education, interior and law for input.

Provisions of the bill

The bill, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, says that every child must be respected as an individual. Children should not be subjected to corporal punishment or treated in a humiliating way.

The bill proposes two types of penalties.

Minor penalties include censure, withholding promotions or increments for a specific period and stopping promotions for a specific period at an efficiency bar in the timescale. The bill also proposes that any financial loss caused to the government due to negligence or breach of orders will be recovered, in part or whole, from the pay of the teacher. Major penalties include demotion, compulsory retirement or dismissal from service.

Under the law, federal and provincial governments will prescribe a complaint procedure and devise a comprehensive system to implement and monitor the law in registered or unregistered private institutions.

Private institutions will also formulate a complaint system. At the time of registration, these institutions will be required to submit an undertaking that they are responsible for formulating the system, failing which their registration will be cancelled. Complaints will be filed invoking the act’s provisions before an authority, which will be prescribed.

According to the bill, federal and provincial governments will also amend the respective education codes and codes of conduct for teachers to include prohibition of corporal punishment.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2011.