THE corporal punishments are still going on unabated in many educational institutions of Bangladesh though the media doesn’t properly reflect the grim picture of torture and humiliation on the students by some school teachers. With a High Court ban in place for eight years; a section of government officials, child rights activists, and educationists see the issue as’ only the tip of the iceberg’. Many of these incidents, especially in remote areas, remain unreported. A sense of fear that develops among the students, parents and teachers; the presence of influential people in school managing committees, lack of monitoring and lack of implementation of existing laws have been identified as vital reasons for it.
The HC on January 13, 2011, declared all kinds of corporal punishment like caning, beating, chaining, forced-haircut and confinement illegal in primary and secondary schools and madrasas. But corporal punishment is a regular practice in a good number of schools and madrasas till the date. According to a Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum report, prepared based on newspaper reports, a total of 1,079 incidents of corporal punishment took place between January 2012 and November 2018. As per the HC’s directive, the educational institutions would take action if any student is abused by the teacher. But the schools usually take no action in this regard. A research survey of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust revealed that 69 percent of parents think that using corporal punishment on children is a useful tool to bring discipline to the classroom, while 55 percent consider it to be an effective way of ensuring their children’s proper development, and 27 percent feel that children will be derailed if the parents do not use physical punishment.
The practice of physical punishment on children is rooted in our culture. It’s mainly due to lack of social awareness and parents’ ignorance, and so that corporal punishment gets support from many. They don’t understand that corporal punishment is harmful to children and its consequence is overwhelming. Children who often face corporal punishment in schools usually do worse in their academic tasks. School is a frightening place for them. Parents and teachers should concentrate on counseling to correct their children rather than using physical and mental punishment to bring them under discipline.
