The practice of corporal punishment in schools is an age-old habit aimed to instill discipline and focus in learners but as Moses Talemwa reports, it actually has a detrimental impact on general performance.
It is 6:15am and 12-year old Amy is wide awake and miserable. While her parents are preparing to get her to school, Amy is unwilling to go.
“They are going to beat us again,” she sobs into her breakfast cereal. “Why?” her mother asks. “Every Monday they beat us if we don’t pass all the numbers on the weekly test … I don’t like that school,” comes the reply.
Many a parent in Uganda regularly awake to situations similar to Amy’s, where they believe that their children must endure corporal punishment to get better. They will usually use this measure to discipline their children. So, the children experience it both in the home and at school.
Ironically, this year makes the 22nd anniversary of the ban on corporal punishment in schools. In 1996, Francis Babu, who was minister for General Duties (in charge of primary education), railed against the practice, threatening to shut down any school which persisted with beating children.
Two decades later, he insists corporal punishment is backward and a hindrance to learning.
“I’m pleased that there has been some progress in getting rid of corporal punishment in schools,” he says. “It is not yet 100 per cent but there is progress.”
Babu is emphatic that children can be taught without the cane.
“Children’s rights must not be abused … instead we should actively listen to them,” he explains. “In the past, corporal punishment led to school dropout and some teachers were also maiming/killing children.”
Babu’s view is shared by Joyce Wanican, the executive director at AfriChild (a child rights NGO at Makerere University). Wanican says that violence does not motivate learning.
“Instead it creates a climate of fear … as a child when I realised that I was going to be caned at school, I found it easier to feign sickness and stay at home.”
Herself a teacher, Wanican argues that teachers are supposed to act as second parents to children while at school.
“I realised early that some of the children I taught [in secondary schools in northern Uganda] were only looking for someone to listen to them, understand them and give them counsel on how to improve.”
She warns that learners who are repeatedly beaten, grow up to become dysfunctional adults, who easily resort to violence to resolve problems.
“You see it in the university students here … many of them are quick to call for a disruptive strike because they have not been trained to negotiate … they believe that violence is the only viable solution.”
Practice widespread
In 2015, AfriChild carried out a study on violence against children in more than 20 districts. That study, which sampled over 800 children, found that over half of all children experience physical violence before the age of 18 years.
About 68.5 per cent of boys in the rural areas interviewed, confessed that they had experienced physical violence in either their home or school compared to 59.6% girls. A further 66.6% boys in the urban areas reported that they had had experienced physical violence in either their home or school compared to 58.8% girls.
All prominent primary and secondary schools which excel in national exams are reportedly also notorious for condoning the beating of children.
A review of last year’s national examination results found that the top 20 schools still carry out corporal punishment in blatant violation of existing policy. This unfortunately propagates the mistaken belief that children who are not beaten, cannot excel.
Ever since corporal punishment was abolished, hardly any teacher will admit to the cruel practice, yet it is well known that they enthusiastically whip their charges at school.
Some like Spelto Tumuhairwe, a teacher at Kitante Primary School is an avowed advocate for what he calls reasonable corporal punishment. For 20 years he has taught mathematics at Kitante and many of his past protégés will testify to having been caned.
“Corporal punishment helps to deter bad habits that children acquire either from home or elsewhere. It also acts as a deterrent for other children,” he says. “I acknowledge that it inflicts pain, which is a motivator to do better next time.”
Tumuhairwe says that in his time, he has seen corporal punishment inspire behavioural change in children, prompting them to drop what he calls careless habits that affect their learning.
“Of course, corporal punishment should not be the first punitive measure against a child; it should be deployed for those who become notorious for their bad behaviour. For instance, those who fight their friends and so on”, he says.
“The nature of punishment must be appropriate to be effective as a deterrent or otherwise in excess, it causes unnecessary resentment and bad feelings in the child, instead of teaching them good behaviour.”
Alternative options
But this view does not sit well with Yvonne Laruni, a senior programme officer at Raising Voices, another child rights NGO. She is convinced that teachers like Tumuhairwe have not looked at alternatives.
“The only thing they know is to cane or yell at children, which is the same with our parents,” she says. “But it takes an exceptional person to say I didn’t like that experience when my teacher beat me for this or that. As a parent or teacher that is not the direction I want to take.”
Citing the example of the armed forces, where corporal punishment is rife, Laruni points out that it does not cause uniform behaviour change.
“When the officer is around, the soldiers stand at attention and act professional, then they go back to their normal ways, once he is out of sight … and it is the same thing with children.”
Laruni is behind Raising Voices’ ‘Good School’ programme, where teachers are eencouraged to discipline learners without use of the cane.
Evelyn Kansiime participated in programme during her time at Karambi PS in Kabarole last year. She has since transferred to Bwabya PS, where corporal punishment is still in practice.
“In my previous school, we realised that stopping corporal punishment was also a mindset issue, away from the colonial mentality,” she explains. “Teachers were encouraged to hold a dialogue with learners, including getting pupils to solve their own cases, where possible.”
Under the programme, the schools were encouraged to set up disciplinary councils, which comprised both children and teachers.
“It taught the children how to negotiate, plead over a matter and even to reconcile, which are life lessons,” Kansiime explains.
The programme is now in 750 schools, although not all are fully compliant. Each school is equipped with what is known as a Good School Tool Kit, a set of books on how to handle various situations.
Hanifa Bako, a head teacher at Mirembe PS in Makindye, Kampala explains that their pupils’ council handles small cases like late coming, or failing to do one’s homework, or responding to teachers rudely. We encourage the teachers to listen to children, instead of just picking a stick to deal with them – resulting in positive discipline.
Kansiime is strongly opposed to caning children over poor performance. “If a child gets 90% in mathematics and 20 per cent in english, you work to improve the weak subject rather than resorting to caning,” she says. “It means that the teacher needs to pay more attention to the learner.”
Tumuhairwe agrees. “I don’t believe in caning children simply because they have failed a few numbers in a test. It is important for the teacher to study why the learner is not doing well,” he says. “The teacher should try to find a solution for the problem that is hindering the learner … and usually the issue is there and can be addressed.”
While he is no longer in government, Babu hopes that the ban on corporal punishment in schools will one day be universally accepted.
“We still have a few that are not obeying the line … but disciplining of children should be done in the homes by their parents so that they go to school to improve their academics,” he says.
However, 12-year-old Amy is not as hopeful, since her parents condone the practice. It is up to the education ministry to enforce its ban on this cruel and backward practice.
mtalemwa@observer.ug
