Grave concern expressed over corporal punishment
Grave concern expressed over corporal punishment
MIRPURKHAS: Society for the Protection of the Rights of Children (SPARC) District Project Coordinator Child Rights Community (CRC) Abdullah Khoso and other members expressed grave concern over the corporal punishment awarded to a student in Sanjhoro Taluka, district Sanghar.
At a joint press conference organized Monday by Khoso, District Coordinator Muhammad Luqman Nohri, Deputy Coordinator Muhammad Bux Kumbar and District Media coordinator Allah Bux Arisar they condemned the corporal punishment awarded to nine-year-old Ayaz Ali Mangrio, a student at the Government Primary School Gul Hassan Siriwal in Taluka Sanjhoro, by teacher Nazar Muhammad Siriwal. They claimed that Manghrio had not gone to Sanjhoro’s class who, in return, ordered three young students to bring him to school. “The students tortured Manghrio ruthlessly while they brought him to school. When they got there, Sanjhoro awarded Mangrio corporal punishment for not coming to school,” they said. They claimed that corporal punishment had been prohibited in government schools in the Frontier since December 2003, in the Punjab and Sindh since September, 2005. “Corporal punishment is strongly denounced because it denies the child his or her basic and fundamental right to education and development, as prescribed in Articles 6 and 28 of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Child. Moreover, Article 12 would be breached if the child is physically punished,” he said.
Corporal punishment: Future of Sindh’s children in jeopardy
SANGHAR: The trend of imparting corporal punishment to students in many educational institutions across Sindh still continues, despite being strictly prohibited by the government. Such incidents are reported throughout the province on regular basis.
An incident was reported a few days back in a village Gul Hasan Sriwal, Sanghar, where a Primary teacher ordered his students to forcibly bring their schoolfellow, Ayaz Mangrio, to school, who could not come due to some reason.
The teacher subjected him to severe torture till the child became unconscious. He was admitted to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. The deceased’s father said that his son was forcibly brought to school on the orders of the teacher and then brutally victimised.
In another village Saifal Larrik, near Ubuaro, Muhammad Aslam, student of class fifth, died after being physically assaulted by his teacher. Few months back, a similar incident in Hyderabad occurred, in which a 12Â,year-old boy, died owing to severe punishment by his teacher.
Many schools in the rural areas of Sindh province still employ the wretched tradition of using sticks for imparting ‘discipline’ to the students, thus violating the official orders of restriction of physical punishment to pupils.
Psychologists have emphasised in their research that corporal punishment affects the learning capability of students and forces them to skip classes.
Corporal punishment is a form of violence inflicted on schoolchildren by their teachers. This punishment is found in various forms including spanking, grabbing, shaking, shoving, pinching, pulling a child’s hair or ear, hurling objects at a child, forcing a child to stand motionless for a long period of time etc. In schools in Sindh province, such shameful incidents occur as a daily routine.
The fact that parents and the education department are not taking the notice of this predicament seriously has made the situation worse.
“Maintaining a friendly classroom environment should be a major priority in educational institutions as the government is spending huge funds to make the classroom, a learning habitat,” said Zobaida Jaial, former minister for education.
But, the prevailing situation suggests how the education ministry and concerned authorities have failed in implementing their orders in this regard.
The enrollment ratio in schools has decreased because of the harsh attitude of some teachers. The situation is even worse in remote areas, where parents do not take such punishments seriously and also have no understanding of their effects. The primary stage of a child is subtle and needs more attention by all, who are responsible for looking after him. The physical punishment leaves visible marks mostly and also strikes down the child’s personality.
In developed countries, if a child is physical harassed or victimised, the whole society protests against it. But, in developing countries, like Pakistan, such barbaric practices still prevail.
Source: Daily Times
Date:2/26/2008
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