Corporal punishment in schools
Maybe I am going soft as a result of exposure to other civilizations, a few weeks back, a story in the Daily Trust caught my attention. Poorly written and filled with the bias of both the writer and the group that issued the communiqué on which it is based, it is a sad story that […]
Maybe I am going soft as a result of exposure to other civilizations, a few weeks back, a story in the Daily Trust caught my attention. Poorly written and filled with the bias of both the writer and the group that issued the communiqué on which it is based, it is a sad story that ought to stir public outrage. It is the story of Rahila Kachia, a JSS 3 pupil of Government Junior Secondary School, Kachia, Kaduna state who was allegedly blinded in one eye by her teacher, one Moses Auta.
The Daily Trust story was taken from the angle of a statement issued by the Muslim Students Society, MSS in Kaduna. Going through the story, one has the dangerous impression that Mr. Auta, a Christian deliberately blinded his student because she is a Muslim. The reporter did not do his due diligence to find out what disciplinary action had been taken by appropriate authorities on the matter. One needed to search other reports to discover that the state education commissioner has set up a high-powered enquiry into the incident. Any insinuation that some Christian teachers have been targeting Muslim students for over-the-bar disciplinary action, as the MSS statement implied is dangerous to say the least especially in a volatile state like Kaduna.
According to other reports, Rahila was standing behind the teacher when the apparent accident occurred. Any further comment is likely to jeopardise on-going investigation into the matter. Last week, I monitored Wazobia FM’s Mc Bluetooth devote his programme to listeners recollections of their experiences in school. Most callers recalled being brutalized by teachers sometimes for misdemeanor that could have attracted a less physical form of reprimand.
Corporal punishment has been the fulcrum of school discipline for centuries in most parts of the world until Poland abolished it in 1783. Most European schools kept at it rill early this century. For its human and child rights posturing, Wikipedia believes that some American states still allow it in schools. Canada abolished it in 2004. Most African and Asian nations still have it.
Corporal punishment is not the exclusive preserve of boko or western education, I remember flinching at seeing a madrasa teacher in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire thrashing through a row of his young pupils as they recited verses of the Glorious Quran a few years back. Early March, a high court in Zimbabwe caused uproar when it banned corporal punishment at home and in schools. The ruling followed a suit brought by Linah Pfungwa who protested that her daughter was brutalized for not having her assignment signed by her parents as evidence that she did them. Parents expressed outrage at the thought of losing the rights to ‘discipline’ their own children.
Research is ongoing on the emotional scars left on pupils as a result of corporal punishment with social scientists wanting it totally banned. Having gone through the Naija educational system myself, there was trepidation on my part putting three of my children through our educational system. Although only the eldest of my children went through public school, hearing them sometimes recall their ordeal in the hands of teachers and fellow students sends chills down my spine. At hostels, it was not just housemasters that exhibit forms of bestiality seniors joined the train, confiscating provisions meant for the welfare of their juniors and subjecting them to cruel and degrading treatment.
The big question is what does corporal punishment serve if those who did not go through it have exhibited compassion in life and excellence in their academic and other endeavour? Should we continue to encourage the battering of our children in schools or should we borrow from other nations that have outlawed corporal punishment and embrace other forms of discipline? Nothing would bring back the eye of citizen Rahila and she is not the only student carrying a lifelong physical and emotional wound as a result of cane-wielding teachers or seniors apparently licensed to unleash their frustrations on their students or junior ones at the slightest provocation.
I personally recall a bestial teacher who answers our chorus of good morning teacher with a horrible response of ‘bad morning to you all’ before mentally picking pupils to solve mathematical equations. Less than 10 percent of my classmates passed mathematics as a result. Foreign language teachers are equally noted for their bestiality.
In Canada students are not whipped for coming late, instead the school sends an alert to parents requesting an explanation for the student’s absence or tardiness. Of course students are still suspended or expelled in extreme cases, but at least no student goes to school in the fear of being brutalized by either teacher or senior. With the frequency of physical and emotional disabilities, is it not time that the Federal Ministry of Education takes a stand on the use of corporal punishment in schools? To smack or not to smack? Let the debate begin but its time to stop bestiality in schools.