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Education Ministry will not allow corporal punishment rules to be breached – Shaik Baksh

Mar 07, 2009 News

“The Education Ministry and the Minister will not sit idly by and allow the rules governing corporal punishment in schools to be breached,” was the commitment of Minister of Education, Shaik Baksh, when he addressed a gathering of media personnel recently.
The Minister’s comments came in the wake of the recent flogging incident at the Berbice High School, which saw a teacher breaching the rules of corporal punishment as it applies to the education sector.
The Ministry had distributed a document entitled: ‘Maintenance of Order and Discipline in Schools/Alternative Forms of Punishment’.
This document categorically states, inter alia, that only a head-teacher can administer corporal punishment to students, or identify a senior teacher to so administer same in his or her presence.
This procedure was however not heeded by the teacher.
According to the Minister, the move of the teacher was viewed by the Ministry as a fundamental breach, and therefore required that disciplinary measures be taken.
“If a teacher has breached in a very substantial way the manual for the maintenance of order and discipline in schools, the matter cannot be settled at the regional level. Neither the Parent/Teacher Association nor the school management nor the Regional Education Department can settle such a matter…”
The Minister pointed out that the first line of intervention of such matters should be at the central ministry level, which will then decide whether the involvement of the Teaching Service Commission is necessary.
According to Chairman of the TSC, Leila Ramson, the Commission is a highly constituted body which is mandated to appoint teachers, remove teachers and impose disciplinary action when it becomes relevant.
As part of its intervention into the flogging incident the TSC, following a hearing, had ruled that the teacher in question who had been sent on leave be reinstalled to her position, but would not qualify for promotion until two years have elapsed.
In addition, the teacher was sent a warning letter reminding her of the regulations/policies, practices and procedures relating to corporal punishment, and was warned to adhere to them and to discontinue any act of contravention, Ramson said.
According to the TSC chairperson, the decision to reinstal the teacher was taken after the welfare of the students was taken into consideration.
The teacher Juneanne Jeffrey, who is a trained graduate teacher, up to the time of the flogging taught Social Studies to fifth-form students who are preparing for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Examination.
The teacher became the centre of an investigation after she administered three lashes each to 28 of the 31 children in the class.
The situation came about after the teacher handed out an assignment to her class on January 29, with the understanding that it would have been completed by February 5. However, only a few students met the deadline.
The teacher then administered the flogging, breaking the rule set by the Ministry of Education as it relates to corporal punishment of students.

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