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Can we wish that cane away?
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Corporal punishment in schools is welcomed if it helps character-building. But even this can be done away with if the child gets proper guidance at home, feels SWAPNA RAGHU
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EVER remember being given `cuts' at school? That was what they called caning at boarding schools in days gone by. The more cuts kids received, the bolder and more uncontrollable they became, defeating the very purpose for which cuts were given. Only later did psychiatrists intervene.
The law did not think it was that serious then. Else this would not have happened: In an old English case, (R vs Hopley (1860) 2 F&F 207), a headmaster wrote to a parent asking his permission to severely beat the latter's child for consistent obstinacy and received the permission. This headmaster beat the boy for more than four hours. The boy died.
(Halsbury' Laws Para 118 Vol 115th edition): International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966
provides for compulsory and free primary school education to all.
Along with that children's rights too were slowly getting recognised. The Convention on Rights of the Child adopted by the United Nations in 1989 under Article 37 (a) declares that no child be subjected to torture or any degrading punishment.
In 2001 the Delhi High Court held that imposition of corporal punishment on the child is not in consonance with his right to life under Art 21.
Indeed, it is a remarkable decision to protect the human rights of a child. Ours is a country where child labour and child illiteracy go hand-in glove, the necessity of recognising and protecting their human rights need to be urgently translated in practice than on paper thesis alone.
Although the National Policy on Education indicates eradication of corporal punishment in schools, few schools in Kochi welcome it. In fact, many teachers of the older generation in Kochi were notorious for their innovative methods of punishment.
Modes of punishment can be simple, like caning on the hands or legs, and even modified to suit the imagination of the teacher. There was this schoolmaster who pinched his students using a little sand to enhance the effect of the pinch on the bare, soft arms.
Then there was another schoolmaster who terrorised his students with a cane that was regularly dipped in oil to make it flexible and every strike with it more painful. This very ritual, it is said, frightened his students to such an extent that they went on to complete their homework regularly.
Interestingly, many of these teachers are still remembered by their wards with respect and a tinge of love. In contrast, some of the modern day teachers, who never punish or correct a child, are forgotten by their pupils the moment they leave the portals of the school.
This is significant, for it is widely believed that corporal punishment violates the right of a child.
``These days, parents spend very little time with their children at a time when they need their love and attention. When they are denied this, children take out their anger and despair in school, on teachers and friends. This makes it necessary for the teacher to enforce discipline by beating. If parents do their duty sincerely there will be no need to punish the children. Children often try to imitate what they see on television. Parents should prevent children from having an unrestricted access to television,'' says Sister Nirmala (CCR), Principal, St Aloysius ICSE Convent School, Palluruthy.
There has been a sea change in the attitude of the parents also. In the past the parents often requested the teacher to punish the child with a view to correct his behaviour. However, most of the modern parents, perhaps because most of them are highly educated, are extremely sensitive when it comes to their children. They will not allow the teacher to punish a child, even if it is done to check him from turning wayward.
Paragraph 10 of the Delhi High Court judgement reads: ''We cannot subject the child to torture and still expect him to act
with understanding ,peace and tolerance towards others...''
A retired school master contradicts this with his experience. ''Teachers do not like to beat children. We do it when there is absolutely no other way to reform him. Only once have I punished a student and even today I regret the act. I hit a boy with a cane 25 times on his shoulder. And when he came up to me later and showed me those scars, I wept before him. It made us both
realise the sanctity of a teacher-student relationship. It is that awareness which is lacking in our educational system today.''
Sruthy Jayakumar, a sixth standard student at St Aloysius Convent School unfolds a child's feelings: ''If
teachers don't punish us, how will we know and learn from our mistakes? Teachers beat only when there is a good reason.''
The end of education is formation of character. It is up to the teachers to decide whether to spare the rod and spoil the child or vice-versa. If punishment helps character-building, let it go on. But more importantly, parents should spend a few hours with their children. For after all, home is a child's first and natural school.
And as for us, it is time to wake up and tell ourselves, `Every child is precious.'
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