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Top teacher wants corporal punishment reintroduced
Hamant France, this year’s Top Teacher, wants corporal punishment reintroduced in schools to address a growing discipline problem.
But France, who has been teaching at the Zeeburg Secondary School for the past ten years, says that having a whip doesn’t mean using it.
“I believe it’s a psychological thing,” he told Kaieteur News yesterday, recounting an experience once when he took a cane into the classroom and was able to gain control of the class without using the cane, since corporal punishment is not allowed in school.
Hamant France, analyzing reports at the Zeeburg Secondary School, yesterday.
“I believe the whip, the cane, acts as a very, very good deterrent in terms of controlling student behaviour.”
France was named Best Graduating Teacher when Cyril Potter College of Education held its annual graduation ceremony last Thursday. He believes that the whip could help teachers retain the power in the classroom.
“Students know that you have very limited powers over them, so to speak, so they behave in a very disrespectful manner. What could you do? Send them to pick up some pieces of papers? And what else could be done?”
France says that corporal punishment helped him personal when he was a schoolboy.
“I am one of those students who didn’t like being flogged so I had to conduct myself in a manner that would not necessitate flogging; so for me it worked,” he related.
France has other suggestions that could help all. For example, he sees the need for children to be given more help at home.
“You would try to instill certain things in your students when they are in school but you don’t get the sense that it is being reinforced in the home. For me that co-operation between school and home is something that is lacking,” he stated.
He said that help for children home is necessary if education is to be effective. In this, France suggests more active involvement of the Parent-Teacher Associations. At his school, he said, the PTA is seeking to have more frequent meetings to address issues affecting student performance.
France is one of the few males taking up teaching as a profession. Of the almost 2, 000 new teachers enrolled at the teacher’s training college for the 2009/2010 year, just 13 per cent are men.
He feels the poor pay teachers receive is one of the reasons more men are not taking up the profession.
“Males have the significant responsibility of looking over the home…providing for the home,” France pointed out. He pointed to a male ex-teacher, who was unable to support his family on a teacher’s salary, and left the profession and took up the wood business.
“So I believe the financial rewards must be improved if we are going to attract males and highly qualified people to this profession,” he posited.
France is adamant that if Guyana is to be developed the way it needs to be developed, the teaching profession needs to attract intelligent minds.
“If that is done, we are going to be in a very, very good position.”
France attended President’s College for seven years, first writing examinations offered by the Caribbean Examinations Council and afterwards, pursuing ‘A’ Levels.
Later, he enrolled in the Faculty of Technology at the University of Guyana, pursing a course in geology. But then he decided on teaching.
Now, he looks back with a heavy heart over the fact that President’s College is no longer seen as one of the country’s top performing schools.
“It really saddens my heart to see what is happening to President’s College. It is always sad when your Alma Mater is not performing as well as it used to perform. But my heart is still with President’s College and if possible I would still like to give back something to my school.”
France is elated to have graduated at the top of the 2010 class, but achieving this honour was no easy task. He taught full-time while attending classes in the evening at the In-service centre at Vreed-en-Hoop.
His first love is science, but since the Vreed-en-Hoop centre was not offering science, he decided on his second love – Mathematics.
He currently teaches Mathematics, Chemistry, and Integrated Science.
So, with the poor salary and the other challenges, why did France still choose to become a teacher?
“I believe it’s my inherent love for teaching; I always liked teaching. In school, I used to go to the board and help my friends but I never wanted to teach because of the poor remuneration. But I believe that my love for teaching has kept me and will keep me in the profession.”
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