SPARE THE ROD AND ‘SPUR’ THE CHILD

MBABANE – The ban on corporal punishment in schools has been found to have no bearing on the academic success of pupils if the recent JC results are anything to go by.

When former Minister of Education and Training Dr Phineas Magagula banned corporal punishment in 2015, he raised eyebrows that schools would be poorly managed and degenerate to drug dens.

Sceptics suspected that results would take a nosedive and education would go to the dogs.

However, a survey conducted by the Times has proven to sceptics that the academic results were not impacted by the sparring of the rod.
In 2015, there was a directive from the ministry that corporal punishment was now banned in schools. The former minister even warned that teachers who beat pupils should be reported to the ministry so that they could be disciplined.

atrocities

This, after some pupils suffered atrocities in the hands of brutal teachers.
In 2015, a pupil died after allegedly being beaten at school. The pupil had a seizure. In the same year, the head teacher of Mayiwane High School administered 15 strokes to a Form I pupil for not wearing a neck tie properly.

Salesian High School Head teacher Petross Horton said there was scarcely any difference in results that could be attributed to the ban on corporal punishment.
For the past eight years, his school has shown a relative improvement in results, as in 2012, there was only one Merit and 14 failures, while this year there was one Merit and seven failures. The number of failures has been halfed, though 2015 was the worst year when the school recorded 20 failures.
Horton said the school had adopted positive discipline, by which pupils were given counselling.

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