Ban on corporal punishment the cause of indiscipline in schools – Kofi Asare
Executive Director of Africa Education Watch Kofi Asare believes what has contributed to the lax of discipline in our schools now is as a result of the lack of a discipline policy and also the ban of corporal punishment.
While speaking on the back of the recent incident of bullying which led to the unfortunate demise of a student of the Konongo-Odumase Senior High School last week he said “a lot of teachers have developed some inertia when it comes to enforcing existing rules.”
Five students of the Konongo-Odumase Senior High School are currently in the grips of the Police after a 15-year-old first-year student died from a stab wound.
The student who unfortunately met his untimely death had been trying to stop a fellow first-year from being bullied.
“We have adequate rules on paper, but bullying is able to take place and get to the magnitude we are discussing because the control mechanisms are not working properly,” Mr. Asare argued.
He posited that teachers have become less motivated to ensure discipline because of the policy which restricts corporal punishments to headteachers.
In addition, Mr. Asare said teachers were keen on the policy.
“The level of acceptance of the policy was very low. The people in custody of the kids are the teachers, so if they do not accept the policy, they will just give up, fold their hands, teach and watch the kids do what they want to do.”
Despite policies in place, Mr. Asare complained that bullying can take place because there are not enough teachers outside academic hours to watch over students.
“When that happens, it makes it very difficult for such numbers of teachers to control an average of 3,000 per school.”
The Education Ministry’s PRO, Kwasi Kwarteng admitted that the ministry was concerned with teachers’ acceptance of the positive discipline policy.
“We could have done more with regards to that level of engagement,” he said.
However, he said there were misconceptions about the policy’s role in ensuring discipline because “some teachers felt authority had been taken from them”.
“It is quite unfortunate when discipline is reduced to punishment. The whole concept of discipline is not to inflict physical pain on the individual,” Mr. Kwarteng said.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
