Report criticises corporal punishment in schools

The human rights organisation, Human Rights Watch (HRW), has accused Kenyan teachers of "routine caning and corporal punishment" in schools. In a report issued on Thursday, it described the actions as "cruel, inhuman and degrading" and said such treatment should be banned. HRW researcher Yodon Thonden is in Kenya to launch the report, 'Spare the Child: Corporal Punishment in Kenyan Schools', which documents how teachers routinely slap, pinch, kick, cane with bamboo or wooden sticks or sometimes flog their students with rubber whips. She told IRIN on Thursday that although Kenya's regulations on school discipline authorise the use of corporal punishment to "restricted limits", the "limits" are not respected by the teachers. "The infliction of corporal punishment is often not checked. It is arbitrary and often brutal, sometimes resulting in injuries," she said. "Children are caned or given corporal punishment for very minor offences such as poor academic performance or speaking their mother tongue," Thonden said. "Most of these teachers are well-intentioned and many went through the same experience, but because the cruel habit has been carried on by one generation after another, we cannot sit back and watch it go on. These habits need to be dropped." Thonden said changing the country's regulations would take a long time, but that something could be done now at ministerial level. "Human Rights Watch is calling on the ministry of education to immediately ban caning and corporal punishment in schools," Thonden said, adding that countries such as South Africa, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Namibia and Zimbabwe had already done so. However, a parent Chris Okello disagreed with the "ban" call, saying punishment had a "role" to play in every individual's life. "Offences vary and so should the punishment," he told IRIN. "Caning should be there, but should be meted out by designated persons, in a prescribed manner and the right way." An official who works for a local "girl-child" NGO said teachers in Kenya had abused and violated the disciplinary regulations and "something needs to be done". "They inculcate violence in the children so that when they grow up, they become abusers. Human Rights Watch has a case and should be supported," he said. HRW believes there are alternatives to caning and corporal punishment such as guidance and counselling or extra homework and light chores. "The problem in Kenya is that the teachers only have 4-5 hours on classroom discipline or classroom management techniques in their 2-3 years' training course. For change to come, this element has to be included in their syllabus," Thonden said. [The full report can be found on HRW website at www.hrw.org]