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By Cosmas Omegoh and Olakunle Olafioye
“Spare the rod and spoil the child,” is an old proverb. It is derived from “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him,” taken from the good books.
Those undying lines might be suggestive of corporal punishment. But they are a clear reminder to parents, educators and many in charge of shaping the lives and destinies of children that they need to apply appropriate punishment when necessary. It gives hints that when children tend towards unruliness, parents or teachers owe it a duty to apply appropriate sanctions as a way of curbing their excesses.
However, in some instances, some teachers in the past had gone on an overdrive, fatally injuring students/pupils – all in the name of enforcing discipline.
In some instances, severe beatings were reported to have led to the maiming and even death of some victims. The said victims had either pleaded for leniency, but the teacher refused to listen or forced them to receive severe assaults, leading to the unexpected.
It was in the light of the foregoing that the idea of stopping corporal punishment in schools and the consequences that follow was muted. Strident calls for abrogation of the practice had gone out and subsequently heeded to. So the practice of corporal punishment in schools was outlawed.
In Lagos State, for instance, the government officially stamped out corporal punishment in both public and private schools in 2022. The state was said to have simultaneously launched what it called Safeguarding and Child Protection Programme in schools as a way of promoting alternative disciplinary measures.
But what passes for corporal punishment after all?
According to sources, corporal punishment “involves intentionally inflicting physical pain or discomfort as a form of punishment, encompassing acts like spanking, slapping, hitting with objects, or forcing someone into a humiliating position.”
Lately, the Lagos State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Mr Jamiu Alli-Balogun, while speaking during an interview said: “There is a policy here in Lagos and other parts of the country prohibiting teachers from giving corporal punishment to students/pupils.
“Against flogging of students, we have adopted counseling as a measure of correction.”
How students/pupils respond to teacher without cane
But there is this argument in some quarters that the idea that students and pupils might be taking advantage of the absence of the use of the cane to be needlessly unruly to their teachers and even be out rightly disobedient to the authorities.
Madam Ikedi, a teacher in a private school in Lagos State while welcoming the idea of avoiding corporal punishment in school told our correspondent that in some instances, some pupils become disobedient.
“In some cases, the misbehaviour you see in students is a product of the training they received at home. Some children are products of the home.
“We have three kids like that in our school – all girls. Their father we were told smokes hemp. They take after their father.
“One day, I seized a pack of cards the most junior brought to school which she was using to distract other students while lessons were on. Did you know that at break time the most senior came threatening that if I didn’t release the cards, she would make trouble with me?”
Mrs Ikedi added that aside from giving corporal punishment, the fear that parents would withdraw their children if the school dares to correct them harshly is a problem on its own.
“School owners drum it into every ear that you have to handle the children carefully. Sometimes there is a manner you will talk to a child the next day, their parents will show up threatening hell.
Oftentimes the fact that the school does not want to lose revenue makes us tolerate anything.”
A teacher, Adeyinka Adekoya, who retired last year from the Lagos State school system, said since the policy was handed down, teachers in the system had been extremely very careful.
“We had a case where after a teacher flogged a student some time ago, the said student died. That in itself was a big problem.
“Now, the teachers no longer apply the cane. The government had demanded the use of counseling. The teachers only have to talk. Those who will listen will. Some will listen to you and still go on with their acts.
“Are you surprised that nowadays there are secondary-school cultists? Some even bring drugs to school. The teachers will only do their best and leave the rest to the government and the parents.”
Measure teachers/schools are applying
Yemisi Shobiye, an educationist and Proprietress, Gloryland Schools in Lagos, described the ban on corporal punishment in schools in the country as “a sad reality that we have to endure.”
While speaking to our correspondent, she said: “I use the word ‘endure’ because if there is any time when there is the need to increase the tempo of corporal punishment in our schools, it should be now when our young people are becoming non-amenable and unresponsive to corrections.
“The steady rise in the casualty figures arising from the use of corporal punishment as a means of dealing with the growing indiscipline among school children is indeed worrisome, hence the resolve by the government to outlaw corporal punishment in schools. So, we have to deal with the situation now. If our children are growing wayward that should not be seen as a license to kill or maim them in the name of trying to instill discipline in them.
“In our school, we have decided to align with the government’s directive because going against the directive is in itself a sign of indiscipline. So, what we do whenever we have serious cases of indiscipline is to invite the parents of the students and report the matter to them.
“In a few extreme cases we had suspended some students and compelled them to follow their parents when they were leaving. You can imagine how embarrassing that could be to both the parents and the child. Where such parents fail to honour our invitation, we will ensure that such students do not gain access into the school and we will notify his or her parents about that.
“An additional penalty that comes with that is that the parents may not be able to beg for leniency on behalf of the child.
“In the case of minor acts of indiscipline, we may rebuke or deny the student some privileges such as going out for break or taking part in some activities like sports for some time. These measures have been helping us to maintain some level of sanity in our school.”
While sharing his experience, a classroom teacher, Mr Femi Odunsi, said: “In my school, teachers are prohibited from using cane or any item that is capable of inflicting injuries on students. Although light punishments are allowed in some instances, such punishments should be such that they will not result in bodily injuries or cause serious pains on students. But primarily, the school has sewn some uniforms that are dreaded by our students. These uniforms carry various derogatory inscriptions specifying the nature of the offence committed by whoever is wearing it. The inscriptions include: ‘I am a cheat’, ‘I am lazy’, ‘I am destructive’, ‘I am a thief’ and so on. Any student who violates any major rule of the school, more importantly when the person is a serial violator, will be compelled to wear the uniform for a specified number of days as may be decided by the disciplinary committee.”
He recalled that “initially, when the uniforms were brought to school, some of us felt it was not deterrent enough, but we were shocked to realise that our students dread it more than being flogged. On a few occasions, some students had pleaded that they preferred to be flogged to wearing the uniforms.”
Parents react to learning without cane
A father of four, Mr Oladayo Olaseinde, lamented that the idea of totally eradicating the use of the cane in school was not good enough.
“Although I do not buy the idea of teachers flogging students unnecessarily; not using the cane is bad enough.
“Some children are frightened out of their corner to do what is expected of them when they see the cane.
“In our days, the fear of the cane was enough for you to do what is expected. You never wanted it at all.”
He admitted that times might have changed.
“Nowadays, the government and parents are advocating for freedom. They say the children must not be touched. But that has its own consequences.”
He advocated that teachers, especially the principals or deans be allowed to administer cane to instill some level of discipline in schools rather than giving students the impression that they can hardly be touched.
Chief Adeolu Ogubanjo, national chairman, Parents Teacher Association of Nigeria (PTA), expressed sadness with the manner some students carry on in schools these days.
Earlier he told our correspondent that students’ addiction to phones and social media rather than facing their studies had become one of those naughty issues schools were faced to handle.
“This is one area school authorities need to do something stringent about. The application of cane might be out of the way, but really every school must come up with measures to curtail this.”
He went on to advise parents to wake up to their responsibility of parenting well so as to help teachers and the school to do their jobs better.
“If we have well behaved kids in school, we might as well not be talking about corporal punishment,” he reasoned.