Banning the cane in school cannot be done overnight

Oct 19, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Corporal punishment must not be seen as an alternative but must complement other measures of discipline. We do need a bit of the rod to help our children walk the proverbial straight and narrow path. “Let us not spare the rod but let the rod be used sparingly”. Corporal punishment does not mean physical abuse. Indeed our Laws are quite clear about abuse by teachers and parents. The use of the cane must be controlled and employed after less stringent measures have failed. The Ministry of Education’s Manual of Guidelines for the maintenance of order and discipline in schools is clear on this procedure; moreso as it relates to the appropriateness and reasonableness of the use of corporal punishment.
Alternative forms of discipline. There has been much talk about alternative forms of discipline viz; detention, denial of certain privileges, benefits, etc. However there is empirical evidence that children who are very much aware that they cannot be visited with corporal punishment, couldn’t care less if they were denied certain privileges.
Many have argued that the use of the cane does contribute to a display of violent behaviour by the children whom they say have been victims of what they term “physical abuse”. I do believe however that if corporal punishment increases the propensity to violence among students; some of us will be serial killers today. The Guyanese culture has embraced the practice of corporal punishment for decades. Indeed, it has become an integral aspect of our upbringing and many students of yesteryear have actually attributed their success in large measure to the application of corporal punishment as a form of discipline.
Given the present disciplinary situation in many of our schools, it would seem that the replacement of corporal punishment with alternative forms of discipline not in place, does reduce the range of sanctions immediately available to the school and would result in a total collapse of order in the classroom. Learning cannot take place in an indisciplined environment.
We could debate whether to cane or not, when in fact, we still have class sizes that are above the recommended size and when teachers consequently and out of frustration leave their classrooms unsupervised. Most violent student misconduct takes place when classes are unsupervised. Today in many homes, children are left unattended and this has resulted in serious deficiencies in parenting that must be urgently addressed. It is this scenario that leads me to determine that the abrupt removal of corporal punishment in schools could lead to the unacceptable practice of reprimands and verbal abuse by students if alternative forms of discipline are not contemporaneously put in place. We do not want to move from one contentious issue to another.
The removal of corporal punishment in schools must be over such a period that will allow teachers to be adequately trained to deal with indisciplined students using alternative forms of sanctions. In this regard, there is need not only for teachers but parents also to be guided on the proper ways to teach and discipline children. In this way, we can bridge the gap between the Home and the School by coming up with a consensus on matters such as corporal punishment. We can also direct our attention and energies; our resources, our fury and agitate against the more serious forms of child abuse such as incest, sexual molestation, our street children, etc.
Conclusion: The focus must be on a gradual change of emphasis from the use of corporal punishment to the alternatives being emphasised and this new focus must involve parents, teachers, Education Administrators, Schools Welfare Officers, Counsellors, students and the broader community. They must be trained and assigned to schools or cluster of schools and tasked, inter alia, with taking back responsibility from Society for our children’s upbringing.
The ban on corporal punishment in schools cannot be an overnight measure but must be examined in conjunction with the setting up of the necessary institutions, the training of required personnel and the realisation that until alternatives to its use are in place and working satisfactorily; corporal punishment has an acceptable role in the discipline of children.

Norman Whittaker
(former Minister of Government)

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