Corporal Punishment - Why is it needed at all?
I have always wondered why is it necessary to award corporal punishment to school kids? So far I haven’t found an answer. This particular incident once again got me thinking.
Ujjwala Andrews, a teacher in city’s Vinay High School, will serve one year of simple imprisonment for causing the grievous injury to Munir Patel 11 years ago.
Patel’s fault was that he was “troubling his teachers”.
After being hit on head with a wooden scale, the boy began to get seizures and was hospitalised for serious head injury.
This has taken 11 years out of Munir’s life and he had to drop out from school.
Patel, now 27, dropped out of school after the incident and works in a shop now.
He said Andrews deserved “stringent punishment”. “The beating I received at her hands has changed the course of my life. She has got away with a lighter sentence. You tell me how would you have felt if this happened with you?” he was quoted as saying by PTI.
Can you imagine someone’s life being changed in such a way? Munir’s example is one such case but there are so many cases where kids get affected in many different ways after receiving corporal punishments. Some have long lasting psychological impacts. Some just lose interest and some just drop out. Worst, some even commit suicide.
In India and many countries it is Okay to hit a school kids in order to discipline them. I think this needs to change. Corporal punishment should be banned in schools. There is really no need for it. It is heartening to see that some states have banned it. Delhi, Goa and TamilNadu are such states. Other states should follow suit. The teachers who lack the ability to teach, in my view, use such tactics to “discipline” children.
On the same lines I also think there is no need to hit a kid at home in order to discipline him.
update: Another teacher gets sentenced. This one paraded the kid naked for taking a dip in the school tank. I hope more parents and kids file complaints against such teachers. The only sad thing is that such cases are taking 10 years to adjucate. Why?
March 22, 2007
Posted in: corporal punishment, school violence
20 Responses
Corporal Punishment - Why is it needed at all? « The Great Indian Mutiny - March 22, 2007
[...] cross posted here. [...]
I agree, corporal punishment, though thought to be a good idea, gets taken too far.
People believe that no matter what happens to a Student, They will have to suffer the consequences, at least in America. This however, causes many problems to manifest between teachers and Students, for the Teachers cannot take any means to directly Punish a student. Once these tensions grow, people take a minor incident and cause it to inflate to something that leaves lasting effects.
If I am thinking correctly in what they mean by “scale,” then it was a triple-beam Balance. If this is so then thats clearly going to leave effects, since they are no where near light.
I understand that Corporal Punishment can be beneficiary to both Students and Teachers, However, it has no place in the School Enviornment because incidents like the one with Munir can and will happen. Its impossible for them not to. So yes, Corporal Punishment may have a positive side, but all of the Potential risks are far too great.
I think punishments are necessary but not to this extent.wooden scale can be used rather than canes to prevent injury
most pvt schools have banned corporal punishment.. so i think things are changing
I hope to see a legislation banning it and making it a crime punishable by law in all the states. Right now it is only few states but I take heart in the fact that things are changing. Albeit at a slower pace than I would have wanted to.
where did my comment go???????
Which comment? There is one above my comment. Did you write another one? I checked the spam folder as well. there is no other comment from you.
BTW, my blog has been behaving funny recently. Yesterday I lost all my settings of the sidebar widgets and today I don’t see politeindian as my blog on my dashboard. Wierd!!
i had given reuter’s a link about malnutrition and sexual exploitation of Indian kids.
http://shocking.wordpress.com/2007/02/21/indian-kids-more-famished-than-sub-saharan-african/
link at point 6
http://shocking.wordpress.com/2007/04/07/ban-on-sexual-education/
No one has the right to hit a child. Can someone punch me just because he is getting angry with me? The same principle holds.
What does it teach a child. That if you are big and powerful, you can go around beating other people? Or if you get angry you can pick up whatever is nearby and start hitting the other person with it?
I understand that teachers can get frustrated. Better to give a child a “time-out” by asking him or her to go to a corner and just sit for a few minutes.
As a principle, I never hit my two boys. They are still very well behaved. They have their moments, but we just ask them to sit quietly in a corner for 4 or 5 minutes.
Polite Indian | Another Student Dies Due To Excessive Beating By Teacher - August 2, 2007
[...] became a crime? And who gives the authority to the teachers to hit students? I don’t think corporal punishment is at all necessary to “discipline” [...]
I know of one Englishman, Derek Slade, who has set up a school in India because his ‘corporal punishment schools’ in the UK were closed down.
He only takes orphan boys now, dresses them in the same school uniforms that used in the UK.
http://www.corpun.com/uksc8211.htm
http://www.corpun.com/uksc8602.htm
ANGLO-KUTCHI ENGLISH MEDIUM SCHOOL
Layja Road, Near Sirva,
Mandvi-Kutch, Gujarat, India
Hello. I think you are eactly thinking like Sukrat. I really loved the post.
I was smacked several times at school with the slipper on the bottom, I do not think it did me any harm other than the pain at the time. Surely as long as teachers are not throwing things and not hitting in wrong places (like the head) then its ok. Most schools I knew of kept corporal punishment to the hand or bottom and was carried out in the headmasters study.
Refering to #13 Stephen; I too was taught by Derek Slade in his first school in Englad, St. Georges. Whilst corporal punishment may be legal in many Indian states, his perverse version of ‘corporal punishment’ must be classified as torture, both pysical and emotional. I suffer emotionally to this day.
Can anyone point me in the right direction to make sure this man can no longer commit his ‘evil’ deeds. His school only takes the most vulnerable, children who cannot complain of their circumstances, aged 6 - 10, orphaned and homeless.
The address of his school is:
Anglo Kutchi English Medium School
Layja Road
Near Sirva
Mandur - Kutch
Gujararat
India
Thankyou.
Hi. I write a blog called 8minutesonhigh and I got this spam. Just for kicks I googled it and found it on your web site and a number of others. Looks like somoene who knows search engines is getting his name out there. Just thought you might like to know.
professional Says:
September 11th, 2008 at 3:50 pm e
Hello. I think you are eactly thinking like Sukrat. I really loved the post.
Max
Can anyone tell me where is Derek Slade right now, his contact details and mobile number. I heard that he has been removed from Anglo Kutchi English Medium School.
Derek Slade is now answering to the English courts for his demeanours, you will be glad to hear.
Karma and Ratim, if you have any past information about Derek Slade pl give it to me on my email id, shishak19@gmail.com.
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