RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Debating Physical Punishment in Schools

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Jul 14 2000 (IPS) - Child rights activists and school authorities in Sri Lanka are arguing over the continuance of physical punishment in schools with the government unable to make up its mind.

The debate has heated up after the teacher of a leading Colombo school was booked last month by police for child abuse.

Accused of damaging a student’s ear-drums by slapping him hard for indiscipline, the teacher was charged with cruelty and causing grievous hurt, for which a minimum two-year jail term is prescribed.

“We need to draw attention to this issue because it gets swept under the carpet,” said Harendra de Silva, a leading child rights advocate who chairs the government’s National Child Protection Authority (NCPA).

First introduced into Sri Lankan schools by former British colonial rulers, corporal punishment is limited by a 1939 Education Department rule to four cane cuts on the palm of a student by the headmaster.

Under the rules, every instance of a child being thus punished must be recorded. If the errant child is a girl, the punishment must be administered by a woman teacher.

However, child rights advocates say that the punishment is often much more excessive.

The NCPA has got several complaints of children being beaten by teachers. In one case being investigated by the body, a 16-year old boy at a Colombo school was repeatedly caned all over his body by a teacher and later punched in the face when the boy threatened to report the matter.

Earlier this year, a 12-year old girl from a north-central Sri Lanka town complained to the country’s highest court that she was beaten up because her mother, who has a spinal injury, failed to turn up for gate duty at the school.

The school is located close to areas troubled by the Tamil Tiger insurgency and parents take turns standing guard at the school gate. The frail girl was later admitted to hospital.

“It is evident that corporal punishment is still very much high up in society and more and more children are being beaten up,” said Hiranthi Wijemanne, a senior programme officer at the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) here.

“We have tried without success to persuade the Ministry of Education and other authorities to bring in laws dealing specifically with corporal punishment. It should be banned from society,” he added.

Last year, under pressure from parents and activists, the government appointed a panel to study the issue.

But child rights advocates allege that the composition of the panel was not balanced. Not surprisingly, the committee, dominated by school headmasters, favoured continuation of corporal punishment, arguing this helped maintain discipline in schools.

The NCPA is now preparing a 12-page booklet titled ‘Corporal Punishment – Is it really necessary?’ It also plans to set up Child Protection Committees that would include not just teachers and parents, but students, as a pilot project in about 10 schools in Colombo.

While accusing the government of soft-peddling the issue, child rights activists also blame school headmasters and parents.

“I know some principals who condone corporal punishment as the only way to tackle growing indiscipline in schools while even parents have urged teachers to smack the child if he or she does not learn or for unruly behaviour,” said one activist.

“Many of my former students have come back to me and praised me for the discipline they learnt in school often through corporal punishment,” a school headmaster was quoted as having told the government panel that was set up to discuss the issue.

But child rights groups counter that many children have either dropped out of school after being repeatedly caned or verbally abused while others have suffered trauma and other serious health effects.

They reject arguments by school authorities that corporal punishment is part of Sri Lankan culture. “That is not so. Historical evidence shows corporal punishment was introduced by our colonial masters – the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British – as a mechanism to control adults,” said NCPA’s de Silva.

The NCPA booklet, prepared by three researchers, deals with the evolution of corporal punishment in Sri Lanka and stresses that it is not a cultural tradition.

The book also discloses that in many countries, social violence is linked with corporal punishment in schools. It suggests more practical ways of dealing with indiscipline.

“We would like to initiate a dialogue in society to discuss the pros and cons of physical punishment against children. The book is a starting point in this process,” he added. It suggests alternatives like suspension from some classes or work after school.

“When a child is sleeping in a class, the teacher should find out the cause instead of punishing the child. It is possible that the child may have not slept well as he was forced to do some work or slept in a crowded room because he or she is poor,” de Silva noted.