Corporal punishment kills students' interest in education

By Kibuuka Enock


The 2014 national study on ‘Assessing Child Protection Safety and Security Issues for Children in Uganda' found out inter alia that: "Corporal punishment was common in Schools with seven out of every ten children were subjected to caning by teachers, apparently under the pretext of pushing them to attain higher academic grades" (Reported in the New Vision, Thursday, December 24, 2015, on page 3).

But what is corporal punishment?

Corporal punishment in the context of criminology refers to some manner of physical punishment inflicted by judicial order on the body of an offender. The term generally refers to flogging, branding, or mutilation as punishment for a crime (Encarta, 2009).

In educational context, the term corporal or physical punishment is the use of physical force intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort for discipline, correction, and control, changing behaviour or in the belief of educating/bringing up the child.

Physical pain can be caused by different means such as hitting the child with a hand or other objects, kicking, throwing the child, pinching or pulling the hair or ears, caning or whipping etc.

Whereas in some cases some students can be stubborn and unruly, corporal punishment is not, and should never be justified to subject leaners to it. First, corporal punishment is by implication outlawed by Article 24 of the 1995 Uganda Constitution, which stipulates: "No person shall be subjected to any form of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

By forcing leaners to do hard/difficult labour as the Report indicated that "A total of 82% of children were made to do difficult work such as digging, slashing and fetching water at school," teachers contravene Article 25 (2) of the Constitution which says, "No person shall be required to perform forced labour." Both articles of the Constitution cited grant absolute freedom and so cannot in any way be derogated as indicated by Article 44 of the Constitution.

The argument put forward by some teachers that subjecting learners to corporal punishment and torture (in whatever form, be it emotional, psychological or physical torture) is one way of instilling discipline to learners and aiming at achieving academic success, is logically absurd.

First, for effective learning to take place, both the learner and the educator must be in harmony with each other. Corporal punishment and torture instil fear among learners and so find it difficult to freely relate and interact with the teacher inflicting such pain. How can these learners then achieve academic success?

In a study carried out in 2011 in Chakdara, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, on: The Impacts of Corporal Punishment on Students' Academic Career and Personality Development up-to Secondary Level Education, researchers found out that corporal punishment has multidimensional impacts upon students' academic performance/career, psyche and personality development, which among others were: Corporal / severe punishment impedes the class participation, decreases the attendance and increases the students' dropout rate.

The research further discovered that severe corporal punishment has negative effects on students' confidence, creation of fear and hesitation, hindrance towards learning and resulting in poor academic performance.

Psychologically, corporal punishment causes depression, lowers self-esteem of students, causes pessimism among students and prevails apprehension. Corporal punishment also causes personality disorders among learners as it suppresses students' potentials for growth and development, impulsion and emotional instability and necessitation of students towards insurgency and non-compromising behaviour and a source of social mal-adjustment.

Therefore, teachers should work together with parents to stop corporal punishment inflicted on students and rather strengthen rapport with students, step-up guidance and counselling services in schools, teacher-parenting clubs should be established in schools to help students stay in school and achieve their full academic potential.

Otherwise, Corporal punishment, being a matter of concern, has multi-dimensional and obnoxious impacts over the academic performance/career and socio-psychological well-being of the students. It encompasses numerous impacts that are worth-mention and worth-analyse, prominently including distortion of academic performance/career; brings havoc to psychology of the students and almost devastates the process of personality development.

The writer is a teacher at Gayaza High School