EDITORIAL - The debate on corporal punishment in schools

A British newspaper is reporting that a significant number of parents want to see corporal punishment reintroduced in schools to reverse rampant indiscipline. What's more, another survey of secondary-school students in the United Kingdom (UK) found that one in five students would welcome corporal punishment as a disciplinary tool in their school.

Of the more than 2,000 parents polled, 49 per cent reportedly had no problem with discipline being meted out on the end of a cane. It would certainly be interesting to feel the pulse of Jamaican parents and students on the subject.

These recent findings from the UK put an interesting twist on the corporal-punishment debate which has been raging for many years and in many countries. There is passion on both sides.

Many will point to an era when the cane was regularly applied to keep students in line. These advocates argue that they became better students and human beings after a few canings. Others argue that violence against children creates hatred and fear and substantially affects a child's performance in school.

Reports about violence in schools, including murder, robbery and physical injury, indicate that there needs to be urgent solutions to the problems that beset so many institutions of learning. School administrators must think clearly about the kinds of reforms which will give teachers the authority to administer strong disciplinary action when students breach the codes and standards of conduct established.

Indiscipline a challenge in schools

Let's not forget that indiscipline and inappropriate behaviour in schools are equally challenging to those who lead education strategies in First-World countries, as they are to those in the Third World. For example, corporal punishment remains legal in some 20 states in America.

Jamaica's Education Minister Andrew Holness cites the law and several world conventions for his ministry's withdrawal of support for corporal punishment in schools.

In signalling the ministry's withdrawal of support for this form of discipline, he said, in 2008, while some persons may feel that "one of the most effective tools in the armoury of instilling disciplinary instruction has been removed, I think it is time that we try another approach to discipline. The evidence is clear that corporal punishment is only a short-term solution to instilling discipline. True discipline comes when the student or the persons can control themselves, not by virtue of force, but by virtue of their understanding, their reasoning."

He suggested: "Teachers must go beneath the skin to your brain and your heart to appeal to your reason and to inspire you. Corporal punishment, violent, demeaning, aggressive disciplinary instruction, only teaches our children that the only way to resolve a conflict is by resorting to violence."

There is good reason to turn against corporal punishment because there is enough anecdotal evidence about the physical harm that such punishment can do to children, such as a recent case in which a child was blinded by a belt.

But the crusade for discipline in schools is an ongoing process. What are some clear and achievable targets and how can communities be encouraged to become part of the solution is the clear challenge ahead of us.