NCPA on Anti-Corporal...

Referring to an incident in an International school where 9 students were made to kneel and their ears pulled by the teacher, as punishment for forgetting to bring their Reading books, NCPA Chairperson Marini de Livera said such cruel and degrading incidents are violating Art i cle 11 of the Constitution of Sri Lanka, which states, "No person shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

She said positive discipline methods have been i n t roduced in the Ministry of Education's ( MoE) Circular No. 2016/12, and should be followed by all teachers in Sri Lanka. "Non- violent means such as advising the child and speaking to the parents, among other things, have been set out in this Circular, to facilitate a sense of decorum and discipline within classrooms," she said.

The NCPA will hold awareness programmes such as street dramas, interactive workshops and discussions to enlighten the public on this degrading form of punishment.

The public is requested to inform the Authority through its 24-hour Childline 1929, if children are being subjected to this type of institutionalized violence.

Ms. Livera said that, in 1990, Sri Lanka became a party to the United Nations Child Rights Convention ( UNCRC) where States have taken on legal obligations to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect their children from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury, abuse or maltreatment.

“The recently released concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Children, highlights the need to combat Corporal Punishment in the home, in alternative care setting, in penal institutions, as well as in schools,” she added.