The Ban Of Corporal Punishment Is An Opening Of Pandora's Box In The Ghanaian Society

Discipline is key to personal and national development. It teaches people to embrace positive values and detest negative ones. The quest for discipline has brought to light the need for punishment to reduce undesirable behaviours in people. Punishment takes various forms including physical pain which is known as corporal punishment. Unfortunately, the degree of issuing corporal punishment can't be easily measured and some individuals have used it to the destruction of others. Besides, some people misinterpret the intent for punishment for sheer abuse and hatred. Consequently the ban on corporal punishment. This piece seeks to outline as a matter of opinion, the dangers of banning corporal punishment in school

Firstly, the ban on corporal punishment is an abuse of human rights. In our constitution, every Ghanaian has the right to education. We have Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education, FCUBE, to that effect. Education, whether formal and informal, includes moral training of the learner if it must be holistic. This moral training is instilled through comprehension and summary passages on morality, some topics in the syllabus, giving words of advice and of course punishment. Arguably, corporal punishment is more effective than the words of advice as well as those in the books since actions speak louder than words. Hence, the ban of corporal punishment is a restriction to the learner’s right to correction and moral development which is an abuse of the right to holistic education.

Secondly, the ban on corporal punishment is a precedent for adult crimes punishable by law. Habits and behaviours are formed from our day to activities and the punishments or rewards that come with them. People develop bad habits and vices as they grow without correction and vice versa. This is buttressed by the cautionary statement: teach the child the way he should go and when he grows he would not depart from it. Children who go uncorrected in classrooms and homes will thus most likely grow into adult criminals. And we will only be hypocritical and morally unfair to punish them since we were part of moulding them into such personalities. We will definitely reap what we sow in the manner we bring up our young ones.

Furthermore, the ban on corporal punishment is a betrayal of teachers, parents. Every normal parent/teacher wants the good for his/her ward or pupil respectively. Children are punished because parents and teachers love and want to see them live right. They want children to be people they can proudly call their own without bowing their heads. The desperation to inculcate positive values in children can lead some teachers and parents to treat them inhumanely by giving extreme and deadly corporal punishment. Though the intention is good, severity is bad since ''too much of everything is bad.'' The ban of corporal punishment implies that Ghana fails to see the love behind the punishment and centres only on the severity which is interpreted as hatred or wickedness thereby betraying the love of the teacher or parent. We correct the people we love and careless or not at all about those we hate. Hence, public education and sensitisation on the manner of issuing corporal punishment need to be done instead of banning it.

Again, the ban on corporal punishment is disrespect to the freedom of choice of some parents. Some parents and guardians believe that caning and other forms of corporal punishment help to reform or mould the child into the desired being they love to see as leaders etc of tomorrow. They thus leave no stone unturned at home to instill the right morals through caning etc. Such parents and guardians even visit schools of their wards and urge teachers to discipline their wards for the better. The ban on corporal punishment thus does not respect the freedom of choice of such parents since no school is exempted where parents and guardians who believe in corporal punishment can enroll their wards. I suggest we categorise schools into ‘Corporal Punishment Free'' and ‘Corporal Punishment Inclusive’’ and give parents the freedom of choice of school for their wards.

Moreover, the ban on corporal punishment is a deviation from our culture and religions. All cultures and religions believe in discipline. They have expressions and proverbs to that effect. For instance, some Dagaare proverbs on the positive aspects of corporal punishment include ''the sea shell opens up only under severe heat: only the green branch can be bent, not the dry one: the uneducable bird is bound to lose its feathers etc. The Bible also cautions that when we spare the rod, we spoil the child, and entreats us to teach the child the way he should go and when he grows he would not depart from it… Besides, it is morally wrong to be unconcerned about the bad conduct of a child who is believed to be inexperienced and needs the strong guarding hand of the elderly to grow well.

In conclusion, the severity of everything including the sweetest things is bad. However, one does not stop eating food because it can result in a runny stomach. Instead, evaluation of the food eaten is done to avoid subsequent ordeals. Hence, it is necessary to organise in-service training sessions for teachers and workshops for parents on how to appropriately issue corporal punishment to better but not mar the victims. Elimination of corporal punishment is thus an extremist approach to problem-solving, hypocritical to criminal law, a misinterpretation of the intention of punishment from parents and teachers, abuse of freedom of choice of discipline by parents and a restriction of the right to holistic education for learners.

Faustina Tantie
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