Smacked Down: Efforts afoot to end corporal punishment

Draft bill will be sent to Department of Law and should be passed in the current financial year.

PESHAWAR: The Department of Secondary and Elementary Education, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has prepared a draft bill for introducing compulsory education in the province.

The draft bill will be sent to the Department of Law and should be passed in the current financial year, stated Education Sector Reforms Unit Director Riyaz Bahar while speaking at a seminar on elimination of corporal punishment from schools at local hotel on Wednesday.

The seminar was organised by the Society for Protection of the Rights of Child (SPARC) in collaboration with the provincial education department.

Bahar said that corporal punishment would be eliminated from 27,007 schools of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with the help of SPARC and other organizations.

“Corporal punishment in school bears a negative impact on the personality of a child.”

He also said that in a province where the literacy rate is just 49 per cent the existence of such practices further weakens the sector. Under the drafted bill, education for children aged 5-16 would be compulsory. He said that other provinces, including Punjab and Sindh, have already made legislation in this regard.

Highlighting the progress of the joint efforts to eliminate corporal punishment from schools, SPARC National Programme Manager Imtiaz Ahmad said that initially the society has targeted five districts including Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, Swabi and Mardan for the elimination of the menace. He said that 75 schools have been identified as models for the project.

The project, he said, was launched after signing a formal memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education. He said a baseline survey in his regard is ready and being printed. The survey, he said, would be made public.

He also said their main target is primary schools. He said that according to a study conducted by the United Nations, children are given corporal punishments in five areas — school, seminary, working place, community and home — which is normally considered the safest place.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2010.