This is a news feed from Kuensel. I am a little taken aback that our prime minister should suggest such barbaric measures. Read on...
25 January, 2009 - The prime minister, Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y Thinley, has suggested corporal punishment, which is officially banned in schools, be used as the last resort to counter growing indiscipline cases in educational institutes.
Speaking to educators at the annual education conference in Phuentsholing earlier this month, he said that children were growing waywardly and it might not have been right for the schools to do away with corporal punishment without finding an alternative.
“While we have done away with corporal punishment, it seems the replacement or alternative measures have not been found,” he said. “I certainly do not want our teachers afraid of going to the classroom because of abusive children that they may face in the next ten years.”
He exhorted the educators at the conference to discuss the issue and see what were the truly viable and effective measures against indiscipline in schools. “Maybe we should keep corporal punishment as the last resort when all the alternative means get exhausted. And this right should be exercised by only one designated person, perhaps the principal himself or herself,” said the prime minister.
Most teachers in the urban schools complain that students are going out of hand when it comes to discipline and there are no alternatives to inculcate discipline. A Thimphu school principal told Kuensel that having one designated person to exercise corporal punishment, as suggested by the prime minister, could be a temporary solution until a variety of alternatives are introduced.
Bhutan, as a signatory to the Convention of the Rights of the Child, banned corporal punishment in schools several years ago, based on the argument that relying on corporal punishment is a failure on the part of the teacher to be more engaging. Many teachers and parents reason that the outcome of this ban has been serious disciplinary problems. In most schools beyond the urban centres, however, students are still spanked or caned as a disciplinary action.
Education secretary Sangay Zam said that one of the resolutions of the recent annual education conference is to find alternative ways. “We are working on the alternative methods of making children mindful of their actions,” she said. “There is no debate on corporal punishment because we are a signatory to the child rights convention and also provisions in the penal code does not allow corporal punishment on children.”
The national commission for women and children’s childcare protection bill is also awaiting the parliament’s endorsement. Once passed corporal punishment in any kind of setting whether at home or at school becomes a punishable offence by law.
Lyonchhoen said that no one among educators could dare to speak against corporal punishment because this is totally against the new ideas and notions of education. “But there are hundreds of ways through which a child can be motivated to behave, to learn and to perform,” he said. “We need to spend lot of time to think and discuss this issue.”
By Phuntsho Choden
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