Spare the rod, please

Children being exploited by teachers is bad enough, but worse is the violence inflicted on these young learners. HANIFA GHOSH looks into the issue of corporal punishment in schools.

A COUPLE of years ago, a former principal of an elite school in Chennai came to see us. She was eager to start an association to look into the issue of corporal punishment in schools. She was passionately vocal and we agreed with her that the matter needed immediate attention. But two years passed by and I confess that I had pushed the matter to the back of my mind.

As this academic year began like any other, and children packed their bags to set off to school, my maid casually mentioned something that exhumed the well-buried issue of student abuse from the depth of my mind. She said that her daughter, who studied in the sixth standard of a corporation school in the city, had to leave early in the morning for some special duties.

In a city reeling under acute water scarcity, these students are sent with plastic pots to fetch water to fill up the tanks in the toilets for the school staff. The children take turns and their parents watch this exploitation silently as they know that a complaint or protest would deprive their child of the right to education.

This exploitation may appear tame compared to the violence inflicted on very young learners in some private schools. I learnt recently that a primary school in Padi, Chennai, allows the teachers not only to cane the wayward or slow learners but also to yank their hair.

Students are even threatened that green chillies would be rubbed into their eyes if they refused to obey. One of the teachers was seen pulling a child up by the hair literally off the ground. When the parents were asked why they put up with such atrocities, they replied innocently that they hoped these methods would induce their children to study better.

A poor parent, who struggles hard to pay his child's monthly school fees, said, "Madam, I am suffering because I did not get the opportunity to educate myself. I want my children to go to college even if it means putting up with such violence from the teachers."

Obviously, the parents are unaware of the long-term psychological implications of such violence in childhood. The American Academy of Pediatrics has clearly stated that "corporal punishment may affect adversely a student's self-image and school achievement and that it may contribute to disruptive and violent student behaviour" ("Corporal Punishments in Schools", Policy Statement, Vol. 106, No. 2, August 2000, AAP Committee on School Health).

Some of the elite schools in Chennai are slowly waking up to this reality though many continue to inflict corporal punishment with canes of varying thickness.

This is sad in a country where a teacher is placed almost as high as God and children are taught early in their lives to chant "Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Gurudeva Maheswaraha, Guru Sakshat Parabrahma, Tasmasri Guruve Namaha" (We bow our heads in homage to our guru who is an incarnation of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva).

Gurukulam fostered a never-to-be-broken bond between the teacher and the taught. The guru took the welfare of his young wards to heart and helped them to grow up into strong, brave and accomplished young men.

The question of "filthy lucre" did not enter into the relationship. Such idealism may not be possible today, but should we not stop teachers from turning into villains who wring the hearts of these young children to squeeze out every drop of interest from them?

True, teachers of most private schools are a frustrated lot - ill-paid and exploited. But this does not justify their violence on children.

And what about the Government and Corporation school teachers with their fat salaries and secure jobs? How many uphold their responsibility to the young lives that are placed in their care to make or mar as they please? Should these teachers allow their disappointments and frustrations to spill over into the lives of their students?

Dumb animals have found their champions in the Blue Cross and the SPCA with the high-profile Maneka Gandhi more than a god-mother to them.

But what about our poor children? Why are they less fortunate than even these animals? Why is it that we remain apathetic to their anguished cry for help? If a teacher in the West can be taken to court for raising his hands against a student, isn't it time we put an end to any transgression of the rights of our young students?

What the world says

IN THE West, people have taken up cudgels against corporal punishment. The National Center for the Study of Corporal Punishment and Alternatives (NCSCPA) in the U.S., has various publications on the effects of corporal punishment on children, how it brutalises them and makes them grow up into violent adults ("The Case Against Spanking", I. A. Hyman, 1997).

A leading paper in the U.K. brought this issue to the fore when it wrote "Inflicting strokes of the cane on a young scholar is a traumatic and unforgettable experience" and the learning process gets "beset with psychological problems which may affect his whole adult life" (The Guardian, December 14, 1999).

Many States in the U.S. now have laws to protect their children from this violent practice. But, the American Academy of Pediatrics still feels that not enough has been done.

Given the warping effects of this practice, the AAP believes that it is the duty of every parent, educator and legislator "to seek the legal prohibition by all states of corporal punishment in schools and to encourage the use of alternative methods of managing school behaviour."

Corporal punishment is absolutely inadmissible and unjustified against the slow or the unmotivated student. Delinquency, a more serious issue is often traced back to the family and requires sterner measures.

When students with a troubled background become violent (instances of students indulging in shooting sprees have been on the increase in the U.S.), the AAP concedes that "physical force or constraint by a school official may be required in a limited number of carefully selected circumstances to protect students and staff from physical injury, to disarm a student or to prevent property damage."

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