Canings continue because teachers 'feel abandoned'

While corporal punishment has been deemed archaic, discipline is on the decline in classrooms and teachers have said they are at their wits’ end.

Durban - Corporal punishment was banned at South African schools 20 years ago, but despite this, our children continue to be caned and beaten in the classroom.

A video of a KwaZulu-Natal schoolteacher hitting girls who had failed a geography test went viral last week, and focused the public’s attention on the issue.

The teacher has been suspended and the provincial Department of Education has repeated its condemnation of the practice.

But while corporal punishment has been deemed archaic - with research repeatedly showing that it simply is not the answer - discipline is on the decline in our classrooms and teachers have said they are at their wits’ end.

So what now? In the Department of Education’s Alternatives to Corporal Punishment document, it defines corporal punishment as “any deliberate act against a child that inflicts pain or physical discomfort to punish or contain him/her”. It goes on to explain that corporal punishment was banned at South African schools at the same time that international thinking about it began to change.

“Increasingly, research showed a direct link between corporal punishment and levels of violence in society.”

Some of the key research findings the document mentions include that corporal punishment:

* Does not stop bad behaviour. Children are repeatedly punished for the same offences.

* Does not nurture self-discipline, but instead fosters aggression and vengefulness and results in antisocial behaviour.

* Does not make children responsible for their actions. They are more worried about being caught than they are about their personal responsibilities.

The document suggests that teachers should employ behavioural modification techniques such as withdrawal of privileges, time-outs and the compilation of daily reports. And it goes on to identify the dishing out of verbal and written warnings, community service, additional work, demerit and detention as well as arranging disciplinary talks, counselling, suspension, expulsion and - when necessary - criminal or civil prosecution as disciplinary action that can be taken by teachers.

But despite this, education researchers Cosmas Maphosa and Almon Shumba’s study, “Educators’ disciplinary capabilities after the banning of corporal punishment in South African schools”, published in the South African Journal of Education in 2010, found that teachers felt “disempowered” without corporal punishment. Pupils did not fear or respect them because there would be no consequences.

One who had taught before and after the ban on corporal punishment said when corporal punishment was allowed, it “helped him and other teachers to ensure discipline”. He had, since the ban, tried making negligent pupils kneel on the floor or do menial tasks, “but these never seemed deterrent enough”.

He felt corporal punishment needed to be brought back. Another said when it was allowed, corporal punishment was abused by teachers and pupils did not complain because they understood corporal punishment to be “part of the disciplinary measures”. But, she said, it was easier to control a classroom then than now.

A third teacher pointed out that not every pupil who transgressed had to be beaten.

“It was a question of demonstrating your seriousness on a few culprits at the beginning of the term and then no one would dare misbehave for they knew the consequences,” she said.

Classrooms had become “chaotic” and most of the alternative methods at teachers’ disposal were “time wasting”, she said.

Among their recommendations, Maphosa and Shumba suggested teachers receive training on the use of alternative approaches.

Basil Manuel, president of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), said the problem of corporal punishment was pervasive in rural and urban schools and it was damaging to children. At its root, it had to do with “teachers falling back on what they know”.

“The majority of them were educated when corporal punishment was administered and were themselves subject to it, so it is not unexpected that they fall back on what they know,” he said. “But that doesn’t make it okay”. He said teachers and the department were to blame and there needed to be a strong commitment to retraining and re-educating people on the alternatives. There were countless documents on alternatives, Manuel said. “But when does the average teacher have access to them?”

Manuel also pointed to a lack of support structures for teachers and pupils.

“There are no counsellors in ordinary schools ... We’re cutting costs, but we’re cutting the wrong costs,” he said.

National Teachers Union South Africa (Nat) chairman Allen Thompson said the union was firm in its condemnation of the use of corporal punishment at South African schools.

“The regulations are very clear ... It is illegal. We want our members to do their level best to avoid using it.”

But, he said, the classroom was a challenging environment.

“The fact of the matter is that discipline levels in ours schools are deteriorating every day due to drugs and gangsterism. There have been calls by student bodies for pupils who are being disciplined to discipline their teachers back,” Thompson said. “And nothing much is being done to support our teachers.”

The Mercury