Corporal Punishment on Students – Don’t Suffer in Silence

by a retired Principal

I have been putting off the writing of this article for quite some time. What with one thing and another, specially getting the Covid vaccine – which I have still not got. But what galvanized me to action was the article in a Sunday paper about the horrible, merciless, beating with a cane of a nine year old girl by an exorcist with the result that the child had died. The other equally chilling news was that of an eight month old toddler being mercilessly thrashed by its mother.

So here is what I wanted to write about. Unconnected to the incidents just stated, but about corporal punishment. Here was the headline in a Sunday paper of February 14, 2021 which read. ‘ SC holds corporal punishment in schools is unlawful after teacher’s slap across the ear.’ According to this report ‘The Supreme Court reaffirmed that corporal punishment in schools is unlawful and ordered an art teacher at Puhulwella Central College to pay Rs 150,000 as compensation to a student of the same institution who sustained permanent lifelong hearing damage after being hit across the ear.’

The report adds ‘Encouraging corporal violence normalizes violence, undermines the dignity of a child, and inflicts trauma in children which is reflected in unhealthy and disruptive behavior as adults.’ Another press report in a weekly paper stated among other matters pertaining to this case that ‘ The Supreme Court in a landmark decision yesterday declared that corporal punishment of children by schools is unlawful and violates the fundamental rights of a child.’ It further stated the ‘the court accepted that corporal punishment can be both physical and mental while declaring that both physical and mental abuse of children in school is unlawful.’ Furthermore the court had emphasized on the need to change our attitude towards corporal punishment and that society needs to change its thinking that hitting children made them better.

We must all be grateful to the Supreme Court not only for the ‘landmark decision’ but also for this pertinent observation regarding this misguided view that hitting children will make them better.

But let’s face it, corporal punishment meted out to students has been a controversial issue over many years. On the one hand I recall the many circulars to stop corporal punishment having been sent out to schools by the Department of Education from about 2001. On the other hand much to my dismay, I have known that principals of certain schools had raised objections. They claimed that they cannot enforce discipline without the use of corporal punishment.

Now, here are three more interesting cases regarding corporal punishment. The first is that according to a press report on July 9, 2018 the principal of an outstation National School was sentenced by the High Court of that region to three years imprisonment for caning a student. The incident occurred in 2011. However within two weeks of the verdict, civil society organizations, including the Education Zone Principals Association, collected 25,000 signatures in a petition to release the said suspect!

It was appalling to see that people who should have known better had organized such a vast protest campaign. It also goes to show that while corporal punishment was and is illegal it was and is still practiced and what is more, it was and is accepted by certain teachers and parents.

The second is an article in Counterpoint datelined September 7, 2018 which reveals that in March of that year in the Primary Section of a leading Colombo School a Grade five student was given corporal punishment by way of a musical instrument being thrown at him. The student incurred some damage to his nerves, was taken to the Lady Ridgeway Hospital and was compelled to miss one month’s schooling.

That was not all. Later in July that same teacher had injured three students. Her weapon was once again a musical instrument! I was amused but also very puzzled. Why did this teacher have to use musical instruments to punish her students ? Did she dislike the musical instruments given to her care or detested the students so much that she grasped the nearest object to hurl it at the students? She sure needs psychiatric treatment. I only hope that the teacher was compelled to pay the cost of purchasing any of the musical instruments which may have got damaged.

The third is another press release in news.lk, which it must be noted is the government official news portal, dated January 30, 2018 cites the case where nine children of an International School had been made to kneel and had their ears pulled by the teacher because they had not brought their reading books to school. So here are four cases (this includes the first one described in this article) of corporal punishment but differing in the type of corporal punishment given. The first is – to put it bluntly, slapping. The second is caning. The third is throwing musical instruments. The fourth is twisting the ears of kneeling students. In the case of slapping and the throwing of musical instruments the victim students had to receive medical attention and as mentioned in the first case permanent physical damage had been caused.

Apparently caning and twisting of the ears while they both would certainly have caused pain did not need medical attention. However at this point it is necessary to describe the types of corporal punishment used in schools. According to my experience there is physical aggression. For example caning, slapping, twisting the ear, rapping on the knuckles. Then there is psychological aggression. This would include scolding, ridiculing, threatening , getting the student to ‘stand on the form’ meaning that the student is ordered to stand on the chair on which he has been seated.

By these methods the student is not physically touched. But is certainly ‘ emotionally touched.’ Meaning that the student is embarrassed and humiliated. Another is getting the student to stand outside the class.I think the reason is that the teacher hopes that the Principal or the Vice Principal will walk by the class and then take the punished student for a caning. As is reported given ‘six of the best.’

One of the, if not the most, comprehensive study on corporal punishment in Sri Lankan schools was the one titled ‘A Study of Child Disciplinary Methods Practiced in Schools in Sri Lanka’. This study was compiled by a competent committee headed by the Prof. Harendra de Silva who was an eminent paediatrician and first Chairman of the National Child Protection Authority. In the course of compiling this report a very extensive survey was done in the primary, middle and upper schools in the districts of Colombo, Galle, Moneragala, Trincomalee, Mullaitivu and N’Eliya.

A total of 948 students were interviewed, 80.4 % claiming that they had during the term experienced at least one episode of corporal punishment; 72.5 % had experienced psychological aggression. Most interesting was the fact that students reported that they do not tolerate punishment from teachers unskilled in teaching. With such teachers the students reported that they continued to misbehave which led to further punishment. Thereby a vicious cycle is created.

At this point it is interesting to report an incident in which Prof, Harendra de Silva had delivered a lecture at a leading school in Colombo on the subject of ‘Corporal Punishment.’ After the lecture a teacher had approached him and exclaimed ‘ I am what I am because I was hit as a student.’ Prof Harendra had replied ‘ If you were not hit you would have been the Principal and not a teacher!’

It is also important to note that in 1990 Sri Lanka became a party to the United Nations Child Rights Convention where state parties have undertaken a legal obligation to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational means to protect children from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury, abuse or maltreatment.

During my entire career as a teacher, Vice-Principlal and then as Principal I have never meted out corporal punishment to any student. I did not see the need to do so. If a student had over and over again done things like not doing the set homework, not wearing the school uniform, getting frequently late to school, or chatting to the student next to him while the class is in session, there were better methods of dealing with such situations.

Corporal punishment to me is a very negative approach to take. I have always taken a much more positive approach. Firstly, quite politely but firmly advising the student. There is a saying ‘ criticize in private but praise in public.’ This what I did. If that was not effective then I would request the parents to come and see me. Sometimes parents are not aware of the misdeeds of their children. When they are apprised they will ensure that discipline in school is maintained by their children.

Finally I must mention that students enforce self- discipline whenever the teacher is able to capture their attention by not only what he says but also how he says it. ‘Teaching style’ is the name of the game. In this context I must categorically emphasize that Trained Teachers have learnt this ‘Teaching style.’ They are far better than graduates just out of the universities.

Despite the Supreme Court ruling it is quite possible that somewhere, in some school, some student, has or will receive, corporal punishment. There are likely to be many cases of corporal punishment meted out to students which for some reason have not been reported to the authorities.

One more matter that bothers me is this. Has the prohibition of meting out of corporal punishment on students ever been gazetted ? In my humble opinion it should be. The decision of the Supreme Court will enable this important step to be taken.

In the meantime this is a rallying call to students and parents. Do not suffer in silence anymore.