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DEBATE
Spare the rod ... and save Zambian
schoolchildren
When a primary school boy died last year after being
whipped by his teacher, Zambia decided to join a growing list of
countries to ban corporal punishment. Apart from inflicting injury and
sometimes death, experts say regular beatings can turn children into
bullies at school and abusive partners as adults. But many teachers
ignore the law, often with the backing of other adults who say beating
and whipping are 'traditional' methods of discipline. Controversy and
non-compliance continue to dog a government ban on corporal punishment
in Zambia's schools, brought about last year after widespread
complaints. Now campaigners are pointing to the dangers of long-term
gender-based violence that corporal punishment can lead to.
Until the ruling, generations of students were
routinely beaten in the name of discipline: thrashed with hippopotamus
tails (known as sjamboks), whipped with canes, kicked, slapped and
pinched for misbehaviour, poor results, being late, missing school,
wearing a dirty or torn uniform — and sometimes for no reason at all.
Children were left bruised, scarred and humiliated; and many dropped
out. Worse, some suffered serious injuries or died. “I was caned so hard
that my buttocks were torn and bleeding,” recalls journalist Japhet
Banda, punished 18 years ago for refusing his secondary school teacher's
demand that he join the then ruling political party. It is a moment that
Banda says he will never forget. He does not want his daughters to go
through the same experience. Eighteen years on not much has changed. “We
are beaten by mostly male teachers with sticks and hose pipe. Sometimes
we get so sore that we have to carry pillows to class to sit on,” says
Jane Nanyangwe, 16, from a boarding school in Northern Province. The ban
followed a twin-ruling by the Supreme Court in 2000 — it ordered the
government to abolish judicial corporal punishment [caning] and overturn
the death penalty. According to noted female Justice Lombe Chibesakunda,
the Constitution now protects everyone from inhuman treatment, without
exception. All industrialised countries prohibit school corporal
punishment, except for the US, Canada and one state in Australia. Zambia
joins a small group of developing countries in Africa — Namibia, South
Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya — that have outlawed the practice. The ban,
although feebly enforced, has sparked a fierce national debate.
“Corporal punishment is wrong and primitive,” says
Simon Mwanza, 52, a parent from Ndola town, about 400 km from Lusaka.
Adds another parent who requested anonymity: “It is not right for a
teacher to beat another person's child. In fact, it has been observed
that children who are beaten never reform.” Human rights campaigners
have pointed to a declaration by the United Nations Committee on the
Rights of the Child: “Children do not lose their human rights by virtue
of passing through the school gates.” But many parents support — and
hand out — corporal punishment, arguing that it is the 'traditional way'
of disciplining children. Swithin Hangaala, 48, a parent from Lusaka and
a former rural school teacher, believes that “when you pick up a stick
and tell a child you will beat them for indiscipline, they will obey.”
For Rev. John Jere, pastor of the Morning Star Christian Church which
runs the Samaritan Community Orphanage in Lusaka, the adage “spare the
rod and spoil the child” represents the word of God and therefore
sanctions corporal punishment. Jere believes God's word takes precedence
over what the UN or others say: “If we do not use [God's principles] and
replace them with man-made laws, then we are in trouble. This is in the
Bible.” He however adds that children should only be beaten for serious
offences — "with love and caution" — and only female teachers ought to
punish girls.
Unfortunately, “love and caution” were not exercised
for a male primary school pupil [name withheld] in Samfya district, 800
km north of Lusaka — he died after being whipped by a teacher last year.
The incident galvanised the national campaign to ban corporal
punishment. “Some people, especially children, are so fragile that even
a small knock will affect them terribly,” says Enock Mulembe of Zambia's
statutory human rights body, the Permanent Human Rights Commission. The
education ministry has since informed all schools about the ban — and
that violators will be prosecuted if reported to police. But some
schools continue the practice, says the Young Women's Christian
Association (YWCA), the main non-government group in Zambia working on
child abuse. In one government-run school at Kalomo town, 400 km from
Lusaka, students complained of a teacher who comes in drunk and severely
beats pupils for the flimsiest of reasons. The matter was reported to
police, but the teacher is still employed. The YWCA runs national
sensitisation programmes which raise awareness among pupils, parents and
teachers of the dangers of corporal punishment and advises students of
their right to take action against such treatment. The NGO, along with
the education ministry, is also working with teachers and teacher
training institutes to develop reasonable and effective alternatives to
physical punishment. Misbehaving students are now disciplined by
excluding them from playtime or giving them non-abusive physical chores.
Says Lusaka teacher Anne Ndlovu: “It is better to talk to children about
their behaviour and help them understand what they are doing is wrong.”
In fact, evidence is mounting that the negative long-term costs of
corporal punishment far outweigh any short-term disciplinary benefits.
According to research, children who are physically punished by teachers
are more likely than others to turn into bullies. Many studies also show
a correlation between corporal punishment and later violence — against
persons and property, particularly women. Schools that sanction violence
help perpetuate violence in future relationships. As Lusaka street
vender Roy Banda says: “If my wife, daughter or son [misbehaves] I must
beat them to pump sense in their heads.” A 2001-2002 government survey
of gender violence found that 24 per cent of the 5,029 women interviewed
reported partner violence, and about 80 per cent accepted that husbands
should beat wives “as a form of chastisement”. The good news is that
according to a July UN report, Zambia has the “potential” to meet five
of its eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015, including providing
all children with free access to primary education. Education for girls,
as well as a human right, brings well-known social benefits: pregnancy,
delivery, household and child health are all improved through female
education. In an April report, Oxfam International, a non-government
organisation, estimated that young people aged 15-24 years who completed
primary school were less than half as likely to contract HIV as those
missing an education. Abolishing corporal punishment will help keep both
sexes in school, campaigners say. “Corporal punishment has been the main
reason why girls stay away from school,” says Juliet Kaira-Chibuta of
the Zambia National Women's Lobby. “The sooner we get rid of it, the
better.”
Mildred Mpundu
16 November 2004
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