Lift the ban of corporal punishment in schools

Nov 24, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
Due to the implementation of a series of policies by the Minister of Education, the school system has suffered severely. It is due to policies like no corporal punishment and automatic promotion that caused a tremendous drop back in the Guyana learning system; even the ‘rights of child’ laws have negative effects in learning in schools, therefore I strongly oppose these policies.
The ban of corporal punishment in schools was implemented in the academic year 2009-2010. It was proven in studies carried out by education officials that the delinquency level in school rose 3.15% after the implementation of this policy. Yes, some teachers abuse children but was it necessary to ban corporal punishment in schools? Suppose a child is rude to a teacher or uses indecent language in school. Instead of beating that child, it is recommended that that child should be suspended for at least two days. But suspending that child will only hinder them on a chance to learn something essential for their academic success and pave the way for them to do something foolish out of vexation and rage. What about the biblical values… what about ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’?
Automatic promotion was also implemented in the academic year 2009-2010. This was the jackpot for the academically-challenged students in schools since there was no longer a reason for them to strive higher because whether they failed or not they still had to be promoted to the next grade. All students that would have failed were then obligated to go to summer classes, but what could they learn in two months what they could not one school year?
That child is now in a position where they haven’t learnt anything from the lower level and is placed to learn things in a higher level. Psychiatrists prove that child’s mind will become comfortable in that ignorant state and therefore making them become like a dead fish going wherever the river flows. But how can we just push children through schools grade after grade straight to the 5th form, forgetting that CXC has no automatic Grade One (1) or does the world of work has place for people who are ignorant?
Can we risk having a country filled with illiterates? How will these children earn an honest dollar that will enable them to afford a middle-class family? With no CXC subjects, what are their options other than doing something illegal?
It was reported that a teacher told a child to sit and be quiet. The child then replied ‘you can’t tell me what to do, I have rights’.
What is to be blamed for that child’s behavior? ‘Rights of a child’ is what is to be blamed. A social worker reported that rise in delinquent behavior came after the ‘rights of a child’ dilemma. Looking back at the days when children had no rights and it was ‘I’m big, you’re small, I’m right you’re wrong and there is nothing you can do about it’, I realized that those days children were more obedient and delinquency minimal. What rights should a child be given when they don’t pay any bills and they are given everything?
Why should a parent be jailed for simply disciplining their child, and then a few years later when the child becomes a criminal? A tree cannot be bent when it is grown but rather it must be guided while growing.
I think rather than all the complicated policies and laws, the new government that is elected should remove these policies and laws.
Trevis Johnson (High School Student)

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Lift the ban of corporal punishment in schools

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