BY DAMOLA KOLA-DARE
WITH a deep root in the Bible, corporal punishment is a time-tested measure deployed by parents, guardians and teachers to ensure children or pupils exhibit impeccable character and high moral standards. The World Health Organisation (WHO), however, believes corporal punishment/physical punishment is violence against minors.
Observers argued that it has not only been abused, but over time, it has perhaps proved largely ineffective with the aim defeated. But others continue to exhibit ultra-religious sentiments on the premise of “spare the rod and spoil the child; do not withhold discipline from a child.” But as another school of thought held, there is a new reality which calls for caution and restraint when it comes to child discipline.
Nevertheless, many teachers and parents have gone overboard through violent discipline and as such led to serious injuries and avoidable deaths for children.
For instance, last month, a pupil of Obada Grammar School in ImekoAfon Local Government Area of Ogun State, Monday Ariyo, died after allegedly receiving 24 strokes of cane from a teacher and made to perform 162 frog jumps for breaking a dustbin. In July, in Badagry, Lagos, a guardian beat a 14-year-old to death for allegedly misplacing N1000 note given to him to buy items at the market.
Also, in June, a pupil at the Air Force Comprehensive School in Kaduna State, Blaise Felix Aliyu, reportedly died after being subjected to corporal punishment by two of his senior colleagues.
The statistics
Over half of all children aged 2-17 – more than 1 billion – experience some form of violence each year. Around three in five children are regularly punished by physical means in their homes. One in five girls and one in seven boys experience sexual violence. Between 25 per cent and 50 per cent children are estimated to have experienced bullying.
Checks revealed that there is not much progress in the reduction of childhood violence. Around nine in 10 children still live in countries where prevalent forms of childhood violence such as corporal punishment, or even sexual abuse and exploitation still exist.
Countries unite to tackle issue affecting 1 billion children
Last week, more than 100 governments signalled their intentions to ending childhood violence, including nine pledging to ban corporal punishment – an issue that affects three out of every five children regularly in their homes. They expressed their commitment at an event co-hosted by Colombia and Sweden together with the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF and the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children.
According to WHO, over half of all children globally – some 1 billion – are estimated to suffer some form of violence, including child maltreatment (with corporal punishment, the most prevalent form of childhood violence), bullying, physical or emotional abuse, as well as sexual violence. It noted that fewer than half of affected children tell anyone they experienced violence and under 10 per cent receive any help.
Thus, specific pledges at the event include among others, commitments to ending physical punishment, to introduce new digital safety initiatives, increase the legally permitted age of marriage and to invest in parenting education and child protection.
Pledges made by Nigeria, others
Eight countries pledged to pursue legislation against corporal punishment in all settings. They include Nigeria, Burundi, Czechia, Gambia, Kyrgyzstan, Panama, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Tajikistan. Dozens of countries committed to invest in parenting support.
The Government of the United Kingdom along with other partners committed to launch a Global Taskforce on ending violence in and through schools.
Tanzania committed to introducing Child Protection Desks in all 25, 000 schools. Many made commitments to strengthen national policies and/or develop specific plans to tackle violence against children.
Stakeholders’ stance
With Nigeria among countries poised to end corporal punishment, observers and stakeholders highlighted why there should be a paradigm shift, proper reorientation, unlearning and relearning modern techniques to administer discipline in schools. They also noted that work must begin in earnest to match words with action.
Vice Chancellor, African School of Economics (the Pan- African University of Excellence), Abuja, Prof. Mahfouz Adedimeji, stressed the importance of education and reorientation to change the mentality of violent discipline which is the “default mode in Africa”.
He noted that parents and teachers need to know that the disadvantages of corporal punishment outweigh its few benefits, adding that all have to unlearn what was learnt about ‘discipline’ being synonymous with the corporal punishment of hitting, beating and smacking.
He said: “It is true that the UN Charter on the Protection of the Rights of the Child (1989) prohibits corporal punishment. UNICEF (2014) also posits that corporal punishment harms children’s physical, emotional, and social development.
“Yet, corporal punishment is prevalent in Nigeria because we are a traditional and religious society. Traditionally, we associate punishment with discipline and there are many proverbs across our cultures in that regard. Religiously, we learnt that if we spare the rod, we automatically spoil the child. This is the way we are wired.
“Now, parents and teachers only have to be educated that the disadvantages of corporal punishment outweigh its few benefits. We all have to unlearn what we had learnt about ‘discipline’ being synonymous with the corporal punishment of hitting, beating and smacking.
“The disadvantages of physical harm (including injury and death, as it happened recently in Ogun State), emotional trauma, aggression or violent behaviour, negative relationships, distorted cognitive function and counter-productivity are inherent in victims of corporal punishment. They become withdrawn or violent.
“It is the power of education and reorientation that will change this mentality, which is our default mode in Africa. Then, school officials who abuse their authority of disciplining students should be called to order, not by the parents, because it is bad for parents to interfere. Today’s parents are notorious in this regard and their conduct of attacking teachers who punish their children is unacceptable, as it recently happened in Lagos State.
“Well, alternative correctional measures that can be explored are many. They include emotional coaching, positive reinforcement (reward good behaviour to motivate other students), time-out (tell the errant student to go out of the class), warning and what be referred to ‘calling out’. I’ll explain.
“When a student repeatedly disrupts my class, I ask everyone else to listen because he wants to educate the class. Then, he is made to address the class but he wouldn’t want to be the one to be called to deliver an impromptu speech in future. Most students just apologise as they often have nothing to say.”
A Clinical Psychologist at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) , Ogbomoso, Dr. Fisayo Adebimpe, said to maintain a sane society, boundaries are needed to be enforced in terms of disciplines among pupils, but the major correctional styles used in schools are ineffective, causing damaging impacts on their psychological well-being.
She noted that spanking (usually with an object such as a cane/stick), slapping on the face, hitting the child, pinching anywhere on the body are now found to be counterproductive, with pupils scared of such practices.
Psychological effects
On the psychological effects, the don said: “Corporal punishment triggers harmful psychological responses, children can experience pain, sadness, fear, anger, shame and guilt, but feeling threatened also leads to physiological stress and the activation of neural pathways that support dealing with danger. Children who have been physically punished tend to exhibit high level of inferiority complex and low self-esteem, this is the more reason where psychological intervention are mostly needed in terms of psychological rehabilitation such as cognitive behavioural therapy, anger management, family therapy among others.
“Research has also shown links between corporal punishment and a wide range of negative outcomes with both immediate and long-term such as physical harm, sometimes resulting in severe damage, long-term disability or death; mental ill-health, including behavioural and anxiety disorders, depression, hopelessness, low self-esteem, self-harm and suicide attempts, alcohol and drug dependency, hostility and emotional instability, which continue into adulthood; impaired cognitive and socio-emotional development, specifically emotion regulation and conflict solving skills; damage to education, including school dropout and lower academic and occupational success; poor moral internalisation and increased antisocial behaviour; increased aggression in children; adult perpetration of violent, antisocial and criminal behaviour; increased acceptance and use of other forms of violence; and damaged family relationships.”
Other correctional measures
Adebimpe added: “The best psychological approach as form of intervention is to inculcate the behavioural therapy techniques into the teaching styles. For example the positive and negative reinforcement in addition to the positive and negative punishment have been tested and effective. Positive reinforcement is the addition of a pleasant factor to encourage a behaviour, while negative reinforcement is the removal or withholding of an unpleasant factor to encourage a behaviour.
“Both positive and negative reinforcement are part of operant conditioning, which is the idea that learning occurs through a combination of reward and punishment. The terms “positive” and “negative” in operant conditioning are not used in the same way as they are in general usage. For example, “positive” doesn’t necessarily mean “good” and “negative” doesn’t necessarily mean “bad”.
“An example of positive punishment is scolding a student to get the student to stop texting in class. In this case, a stimulus (the reprimand) is added in order to decrease the behaviour (texting in class). In negative punishment, you remove a pleasant stimulus to decrease a behaviour.”
New phase of disciplinary system: Theory of Constraints
Deputy National President National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), Chief Adeolu Ogunbanjo, said: “ In our days, we received few strokes of cane; we were beaten and there were no issues. But unfortunately, a lot of teachers now started abusing and overdoing it. Anger came in too. There are ways of administering discipline, talking about the Theory of Constraints. For instance, at home, I tell my child, if you’re naughty again, you will eat only half of your ration as food. So, we can start using that theory. That is a form of disciplinary measure. Or if you don’t make top 10 in your class, I will not buy you Christmas dress. So, it is a problem when a teacher flogs a student and such dies. There should be a national summit on the need to end corporal punishment because we are now entering anotherr phase of disciplinary situation/ reality in our schools and homes. We need to discipline our children no doubt, but a situation where anger is ruling our teachers, it shouldn’t be encouraged at all. Guidance and counsellors need to show support too. Teachers should be stopped from beating, and in fact, it hardens children.”
