Teachers barred from scolding, beating students

FDE issues notification while teachers express concerns over being left hamstrung

ISLAMABAD: With increasing reports of students being subjected to corporal punishment by teachers in government-run educational institutions of the federal capital, the government has decided to bar teachers from beating children with those found violating the ban to face legal action.

Teachers in the federal capital have expressed concerns over the new restriction, noting that it could impact the overall result of schools.

The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), which oversees some 423 educational institutions in the federal capital, has issued a notification last week which states that teachers who are found to be guilty of physically abusing children in schools will be facing an inquiry and suffer consequences as per the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules 1964, and The Government Servants (E and D) Rules 1973.

“Consequent upon a number of complaints registered in FDE reporting specific instances of award of corporal punishment to children by the teaching staff, head teachers in the educational institutions, this directorate re-iterates the earlier instructions conveyed for protection of children against corporal punishment guaranteed as fundamental rights in the Constitution,” read the notification, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune.

“Heads of the institutions and the teaching and non-teaching staff employed in the schools/colleges of FDE shall make necessary provision and take every step for the protection of children against corporal punishment by any person which would include any type of punishment using physical force and intended to cause certain degree of pain or discomfort,” it added.



The notification further went on to describe the kind of physical force which was barred including hitting, smacking, slapping, spanking a child with hands or with an implement such as a whip, stick, belt, shoe, wooden spoon and so on. Moreover, teachers were also barred from kicking, shaking or throwing a child, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing or twisting their ears, or forcing a child to stay in uncomfortable position, burning, scolding or forced ingestion in the case of washing a child's mouth with soap or forcing them to swallow hot spice.



Curiously, the notification also barred teachers from other non-physical forms of punishment which it described as “cruel” and “degrading” such as any punishment which belittles, humiliates, denigrate, scapegoat, threaten, scare or ridicules the child. “Disciplinary measures concerning the child can only be taken in accordance with the child's dignity and under no circumstances corporal punishment or punishment which relate to the child's physical and mental development or which may affect the child's emotional state be tolerated,” it added.

Sources say that directions which led to the notification had been issued by Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood during his first visit to the FDE.  During the meeting, Mehmood said that a rule should be made to take official action against teachers who are violent with children and to completely end the culture of violence on children in schools. The notification, which was signed by FDE Schools Director Saqib Shahab, has been dispatched to the Federal Education and Professional Training Ministry secretary along with the joint education advisor at the same ministry, the FDE director general, all Area Education Officers (AEOs), heads of all educational institutions, deputy directors and assistant directors.

Meanwhile, teachers say this will hamstring them in their efforts to teach children.

One government school teacher told Daily Express that one has to scold children to correct them when they are making a mistake, adding that their own children study in the same schools

The teacher, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, said that now teachers will hesitate before correcting children since no teacher wants to appear before an inquiry committee every day.

Another teacher, Sughra, said that if such a restriction has to be imposed on the teachers, then the government should withdraw the condition of improving results and grade point averages, suggesting that the ban will impact results.

Salma Shaheen, the principal of a middle school in Sector G-7/4 told Daily Express that this move would result in the start of a never-ending sequence of students filing complaints against their teachers.

Conceding arguments in the notification in favour of the move, Shaheen noted that it will equally impact the education of the students.

“If teachers cannot even threaten children with any sort of consequence, then how is it possible that children will complete their assigned tasks?” she asked.

Malik Ameer, the head of a teacher’s association, said that children study for one of two reasons — out of a keen desire to study or out of fear of retribution.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2018.