Corporal Punishment: To be or not to be?

Corporal punishment or physical punishment is a punishment intended to inflict physical pain on a person. This is type of punishment is still a common practice in educational system of most developing countries. It is still regarded by most parents and teachers in the developing world as the best methodology for chastising an unruly child.

Corporal punishment of children has traditionally been used even in the Western World by adults in authority roles. Beating one's child as a punishment was recommended as early as the 10th century BC as recorded in the bible; in the book of proverbs attributed to King Solomon, whom the major Abrahamic religion regards as the wisest man that ever lived. It was also present in ancient civilizations. Sparta, in particular, used them as part of disciplinary regime, designed to build will-power and physical strength. It was also used in Greece, Rome and Egypt for educational discipline.

In Nigeria, corporal punishment is still a major debate topic among parents and guardians at PTA meetings​, as it is a common place to see some parents urging the school authority to allow teachers to use the cane on their children. Some will prefer it to be used  mildly and should be  the last resort after other methods have been adequately applied.  Though some parents are completely against this, but that doesn't stop them from applying it at home where they are sure it cannot be abused. I know of a parent who brought a special cane for a teacher, pleading that it be used on her child as that was the only thing she feared.

Most Nigerian teachers supports corporal punishment, as it has proven to be a very effective in correcting an unruly child, when every other methods have failed. Though some are against this. Some teachers in schools where corporal punishment is outlawed have said that they sometimes find​ it difficult to carry out their duties effectively, since some students misbehave; knowing that the worst chastisement will not be the corporal punishment, teachers in this situation find it difficult to manage their classroom and control their temper and will most times apply corporal punishment just to prove their authority over the students. A teacher said "if you cane one, others fall in place immediately, knowing that they might be next".

Nigeria children in primary and secondary schools have varying opinions on the use of corporal punishment by their teachers and parents. A few supports it, saying it has help in checkmating their excesses, but majority would rather prefer a different method other than the cane. A student once said "in America, a student will wake up one morning and pick his father's gun and go to the school and shoot everybody, it happens because American parents don't flog their children."

Some argue that corporal punishment results to abuse; mentally​, emotionally and physically​ to a child. Parents and teachers have been known to have gone to the extreme in their use of corporal punishment, in most cases children are left with permanent body scars and various degrees of  temporal and permanent injury and in the worst case scenario death. Nigeria daily newspapers and online blogs are usually filled with such stories. Some children carry this emotional and physical trauma to their adulthood. Some have lost their self confidence, some are sacred to ask questions during lesson because of fear of how the teacher or their parents will react.

Many have blamed the rampant use of corporal punishment in Nigeria ​schools as a result of the failure in the education sector, which is filled with a lot of untrained, unprofessional and unqualified teachers. This is evident with the National Youth Service Corp scheme, sending different caliber of graduates to serve in schools, even those who distastes and have no interest in teaching are coerce into the classroom with no teaching experience. One can only expect the worst. Many private schools in Nigeria are filled with unprofessional academic staff, who know little or nothing about child psychology or class management and so when children acts like children, they result to use of whip to force them to behave like adults.

The fact is children will be children and they will always act as children, teens will be teens and will always be rebellious.

          Do they fear the cane: Yes of course.

          Is it effective in correcting them; Yes! most times.

          Is it the best method of correcting a child: that is still debatable.

One of the main reasons​ why some schools have decided to ban corporal punishment is because of its excesses; teachers tend to abuse it by using it as the first resort in correcting a pupil/student, which have resulted to parents coming to the school premises to fight teachers or arresting the teacher involved and  in many cases they withdraw their child from the school, which tends to be bad business for the school at the end of the day.

Corporal punishment: to be or not to be in our school will be determined by all involved especially parents who leaves the burden of disciplining their children solely on the shoulders of the teachers. John F Kennedy said “ I think when we talk about corporal punishment, and we have to think about our own children, and we are rather reluctant, it seems to me, to have other people administering punishment to our own children, because we are reluctant, it puts a special obligation on us to maintain order and to send children out from our homes who accept the idea of discipline. So I would not be for corporal punishment in the school, but I would be for very strong discipline at home so we don't place an unfair burden on our teachers.

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