Hitting a child at school — or outside it — is banned in many countries which recognise it as an evident form of child abuse. However, in countries like our own, corporal punishment has been rampantly used with children at school, at home, and in the workplace where many poor children are forced into labour.
Provincial governments have officially tired to ban the use of corporal punishment in government schools. Education departments in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Balochistan issued directives to this effect over a decade ago, while Sindh took longer to follow suit. In effect, however, the directives were not strictly enforced since corporal punishment was considered a valid form of maintaining discipline.
Institutionalised corporal punishment within the education system has been commonly cited as a major reason for children not completing their studies. According to one study, 30 per cent of the children found to have left government schools by the fifth grade in the past year had done so due to being beaten up by their teachers
In 2005, the UN Children’s Fund, in collaboration with Save the Children and the government, conducted an in-depth survey to determine the extent of corporal punishment. Over 3,500 children were interviewed in three districts during this survey, all of whom reported being subjected to some form of physical punishment. The Islamabad-based Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Pakistan Pediatric Association have also been highlighting the lingering problem of teachers using physical violence in schools.
Given this scenario, it was encouraging to see the National Assembly unanimously adopt a bill last month, just prior to its dissolution, providing up to one-year imprisonment and up to Rs50,000 penalty for the person found guilty of inflicting corporal punishment on children. Additionally, the person found responsible for the punishment can also be charged under separate laws if physical injury occurs. While the Senate still needs to pass this bill for it to become a law, this move is a welcome step.
Also, there is need to create more awareness about the damage corporal punishment causes. Child psychologists and educationists point out how corporal punishment instills fear in students and has an adverse impact on their school performance. Being subjected to violence by teachers also suppresses creativity and initiative in children even when they are older. Corporal punishment has been blamed for the wider forms of violence prevalent in our society, ranging from domestic violence to crime.
Corporal punishment can, however, easily be replaced with the use of more constructive pedagogical approaches. Placing responsibilities on students who are not found to be paying due attention to their studies, for instance, has been found to make them more responsible as well as better learners. Involving parents in ensuring students do their homework or to prevent their school absence can also deliver more effective results than hitting students. Such techniques require more effort by teachers, aided by supplemental measures such as more manageable classroom sizes, but they have been shown to deliver more effective results than inflicting physical punishment.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 8th, 2013.
COMMENTS (9)
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If the child is a problem then send him home for punishment - teachers have no business hitting kids and if they can only control kids by hitting them - they should find another occupation. Lastly - where are the parents in all this - you would think that a parent who had his child abused by a teacher would stick up for the kid.
@amir jafri: I am yet to meet one of those thousands.
Corporeal punishment is barbaric and unIslamic. Teach your children why doing something is wrong instead of beating them out of it. If they don't know why something is wrong, all you'll do is breed resentment and encourage them to lie. Children are intelligent enough to understand the consequences of their actions. Treat them like an intelligent adult would and they'll respond appropriately. As a child, i was caned and slapped and it made absolutely no impact on me other than making me loathe my so called teachers. However, after i switched schools and had more responsible and patient instructors, I was able to change my behavior and become a much better person over all.
@NMA: Right on...the western world is bewildered and confused over this experiment upon the lives of its citizens. On education, right from when Dickens screamed "murdering the innocents" to this day, the social engineers are out to prove each other right or wrong....
The "progress" of the west is a chimera; it appeals only to those who have had no chance to "taste" it.
Thousands and Thousands of "westerners" are abandoning the "WEST" are converting to Islam each year...and still living in the WEST. No need to leave it geographically; just make it muslim.
@Stranger: corporal punishment not capital punishment. LOL
I am against capital punishment but there is a limit to the patience of teachers and parents. some kids need some kind of fear in them to drive them to study. Some of the mistakes the kids do are really 'hit- worthy'. some times we hit them inadvertently and then immediatly regreat.so u see its not a black and white case.
@NMA:
Yes, the Pakistani society is at the peak of happiness, tolerance and wealth. The youth in Pakistan are so much more disciplined than their western counterparts. Following the western ideals will ony result in decline of our superior society.
@NMA: If western countries are declining, then why don't you come back to Pakistan and live here? Is not it sheer hypocrisy?
I just don't get why people in Pakistan blindly follow western ideals...... Here in the UK after some decades of a ban on corporal punishment the effect is being seen - a complete breakdown of discipline amongst the youth, which is leading to the decline here and in most other western countries.
Yes in Pakistan corporal punishment is at times misused but there are already existing laws for that which should be used to tackle the problem. With kids the carrot and the stick is a must..... Otherwise Pakistani society will follow the same decline as here....