Stop corporal punishment

CORPORAL punishment or canning of children is unconstitutional in Zimbabwe.

And even if it was legal, what that teacher - who has been sentenced to 630 hours of community service - did, would still be illegal.

Section 53 outlaws the infliction of corporal punishment by their (children’s) parents or guardians under the new Constitution.

So we can no longer beat our children as parents and as teachers but this does not mean we cannot instil discipline in them.

Rather it teaches us to be more patient with our children and to use words more than weapons on the defenceless souls.

If teachers are left to beat students, it gives children the false conviction that they have to be beaten to obey adults.

Corporal punishment is illegal in Zimbabwe but the Ministry of Primary and Secondary

Education is not doing enough to see that teachers and school heads do not apply it on students.

Children must know that they have a right not to be beaten and if teachers beat students they should be arrested.

Beating students is not only abusing their rights as humans but also teaches them to solve problems using violence. Students that are beaten up for doing wrong grow up into violent and abusive adults, parents and even teachers.

So by using corporal punishment you are planting seeds for a violent future. Teachers and all adults in charge of young people must know that violence is not an option.

Violence begins when the human mind stops functioning. That is why so-called short-tempered people end up in jail or paying some form of penalty for their violence.

There is no reasonable explanation to explain why some people resort to violence save for the fact that they cannot control their emotions. They do not have their faculties intact and need to be prosecuted and rehabilitated for being physical against people they think have done them wrong.

A human being should be taught to understand and reason as the most intelligent creation on earth.

Failure to deal with this creation in a civilised manner also makes you (be you a parent, teacher, headmaster or manager) uncivilised.

In this light, teachers and headmasters who rush into beating up pupils like savages are incapable and a sad excuse for professionals that should act in loco parentis.

There are many headmasters and teachers that take pride in violence. They are renowned for their abilities in beating defenceless pupils and love being feared like lions in a jungle. That is just savagery and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and the police must see an end to that.

What that teacher did should serve as an example to all teachers and pupils that violence solves nothing.