EMBRACE POSITIVE DISCIPLINE

Sir,

I would like to express my views as a pupil on the issue of corporal punishment in schools.

First of all, let me clearly state that I am against the continuing use of this punishment in schools regardless of government making it illegal. I am not saying this because I am a pupil but because corporal punishment does not instil discipline in chaotic children but instead pushes them to be more defiant.

However, in the country we are unfortunate as the issue of making such punishment illegal is not taken seriously.
 One head teacher once told his pupils that the new law that made corporal punishment illegal did not apply in his school.
Question now is: if government really wants to eliminate this type of punishment, what means are being taken to ensure its complete elimination? Or are the people responsible for this those who still believe in it?

As a country we have to eliminate all old school barbaric acts and catch up with modern ways.
I once saw a Letter to the Editor in the paper where the person was complaining about the new policy, arguing that positive discipline doesn’t work with the African child as he sees the policy giving him a right to be a trouble-maker. Let’s face it fellow Swazis; we can’t go anywhere with such attitudes.

We have to embrace change especially when it’s for the better and a step towards a great education system. Tell me of a country with a great education system that allows corporal punishment.

Even when it was officially disallowed in the US or any other country that eliminated it; at first it was never easy. Besides, being an African child doesn’t mean you have to whip me because you think positive discipline doesn’t work on me.

People use the media to criticise the policy as they see news and images of pupils involved in romantic dramas, fights with their teachers and insubordination. People then conclude that pupils have become more disrespectful after the policy.

Some administrators often label students as hard to deal with and that the stick is the number one way to counter this.
Allow me to also lash out at those administrators for failure to exercise their creativity in coming up with effective ways for positive discipline. In one school I was once enrolled in, they used ways such as; detention, consistent parent involvement, suspension and the use of mark lists whereby if one was marked for bad conduct more than five times by teachers, his matter would go before the DC.
There’s no punishment in smacking someone’s back and Swazis have to embrace the new policy because finally we will read less of stories in papers about pupils seriously injured by ‘stick-happy’ teachers.

L S

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