86% of Teachers CRY – Bring Back Corporal Punishment

A survey online by teachers showed that 86% of those who voted on whether the cane should be brought back to the classroom agreed with it whiles only 14% kicked against the use of the cane. 

Bring back Corporal Punishment

For some years now, the Ghana Education Service has frowned on corporal punishment in the Ghanaian education sector. In place of the cane, spanking, hitting, whipping, swatting, smacking, scratching, pulling hair, kneel on painful objects, and forcing a child to stand or sit in painful positions for long, the GES has put in place other corrective means such as Positive Reinforcement, Guidance, and Counseling.

The use of non-physical disciplinary measures has been recommended by teachers and psychologists who kick against corporal punishment as one of the best alternatives for disciplining students.

In the past, teachers and school authorities deployed corporal punishment on students for a variety of reasons.  According to hrw.org, it was believed that corporal punishment helped brightened students while others felt that, its usage and the pain it produces which is suffered by the student make him or her change for the better.

Adults in Ghana who went through the education system that prescribed inflicting pain on learners as a means of correcting them, say, it never killed them but made them better people.

Today. it looks as though talking to a learner who consistently repeats the same kind of unaccepted behaviour with the hope that they will change in behaviour is not working.

Today after the WASSCE students went rampage, we have a fair idea of the ugly face of indiscipline in our schools. We know the generation of lawless and disrespectful students Ghana is breeding in its pre-tertiary education level. Will the cane do the trick? 

To counter the sad incidence, Ghanaians are beginning to call for the reintroduction of corporal punishment into schools. 

Teachers have not been left out of the debate as they bear the brunt of these students in school but can do just little about the situation. Sad to say many of such students do not respect their parents and see these teachers as “doormats”.

Asking the learner to write a brief statement in which he or she describes the negative effects his or her behaviour has on others has not worked for many students.

Apologizing for the mistake in front of their classmates by the student offenders has also not worked sometimes.

The cane itself has not worked for some in the past as well. With human rights issues taking centre stage in the formulation of policies, defending the rights of students which includes not inflicting physical and or emotional harm on learners, some educators in favour of using the cane and other pain transferring means of correction have laid the blame of indiscipline at the doorstep of NGOs and child rights organizations for making undisciplined children have a field day at school.

But to ensure students are held responsible for their actions, assigning non-abusive physical tasks thus tasking students to perform light chores, to water or weed a school compound or to fix what they have broke has been proposed.

Even with these, the GES frowns on learners performing these tasks during contact hours. Parents have attacked teachers and headteachers have lost their lives in Ghana as a result. 

Are the teachers saying bring back Corporal Punishment ready to battle the challenges it will pose? 

As teachers call for the return of the cane and ask that it re-metamorphoses into a punishing tool and not a mere pointing tool, we should be ready to dance to international laws, human right laws, the GES’ code of conduct for teachers which have clipped the wings of everyone.

Let us reason together and find lasting solutions to student indiscipline before they start revolting massively and spraying their colleagues with guns as we hear of in the developed countries. 

Source: Wisdom Hammond | Leadership expert and Freelancer