CORPORAL PUNISHMENT

Suffer the children

Corporal punishment was still being meted out to school children at every grade, a non-governmental body said on Thursday. Joan van Niekerk of Childline South Africa said this was happening in public as well as private schools. "We have reports of broken arms, serious wounds that require stitching, burst ear drums, severe beatings, etc," she said in Cape Town.

"Some educators, aware that they many no longer beat children, resort to ear-twisting and other forms of physical hurting. One educator at a school in Ladysmith area would put pencils between a child's fingers and then squeeze the child's fingers shut -- an excruciatingly painful thing to do to anyone, let alone a child."

Van Niekerk was speaking at a round-table discussion convened by the South African Human Rights Commission, Rapcan and Save the Children Sweden on discipline and constitutional issues. She said discipline remained synonymous with corporal punishment, with such "confusion" understandable as many teachers themselves grew up and were educated in a school system where child rights violations were prevalent.

"The proscription on corporal punishment is often held responsible for other problems at school, for example the high matriculation failure rate. Principles of learning do not appear to be understood."

Van Niekerk said not enough was being done to train teachers in alternative methods of discipline, with educators "floundering" to find alternatives which enabled them to feel in control of the children they taught. She gave an example from Limpopo Province, of an eight-year-old boy who had misbehaved in class, during the winter months. The teacher locked him into the classroom when school had been dismissed.

"All night the child's family searched for him in great distress. All night the terrified child searched for a way to escape from the dark and cold room, injuring his hands in his efforts to get through the burglar guards."

Van Niekerk said Childline has come across many incidents in which children were humiliated and hurt emotionally and psychologically because of a lack of knowledge of alternative methods of discipline. She told the audience that those within the education hierarchy and educator colleagues supported "non-reporting" and even put pressure on children not to tell of corporal punishment.

Van Niekerk said Childline had also come across "payment of damages" and payment of medical bill by teachers who have beaten children in exchange for the children withdrawing reports. "In one case a child, after a beating at school which resulted in a broken arm, was sent by taxi to a local clinic, accompanied by an educator to ensure the child did not disclose the origin of the injury. All medical expenses were paid by the educator responsible and damages were offered to and accepted by the child's parents, who were living in deep poverty."

Van Niekerk said children remained scared of repercussions when reports were made, and this was compounded by an education department reluctant to pursue investigations.

SAPA
26 January 2006

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=262457&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/

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