Corporal Punishment

Recently authorities in North Kashmir’s Kupwara district suspended two teachers of a government school over alleged corporal punishment to three students. The preliminary enquiry conducted by the officials revealed that the students were punished in a way which is not permissible and the action needed to be taken against the teachers.
A committee was constituted to conduct a thorough probe into the matter and come-up with a factual report along with specific comments or remarks within 10 days for further course of action.
The prompt action by the authorities is clear a message to all the teachers across Jammu and Kashmir that the corporal punishment in schools is unacceptable and anyone who tries to cross the line will have to face the consequences.
The Kupwara incident is not the first one several such incidents were reported in various districts across J&K this year. In April this year, the district administration Rajouri placed under suspension a government teacher on allegations of corporal punishment to a girl student of the school.
Students and their parents staged a protest outside Government High School Manyal in Thanamandi accusing a teacher of resorting to corporal punishment.
Last year, a student was repeatedly slapped by a teacher at a private coaching centre in Parraypora area of Srinagar.
Teachers should understand that times have changed and the students cannot be manhandled for not doing their homework or not paying attention in the class or for other reasons.
One can understand that teachers have to punish the students to inculcate discipline among them but the punishment doesn’t mean physical assault.
The corporal punishment has been banned in all the educational institutions across the country. It’s considered to be a most uncivilized way of punishing the students as it humiliates them and leads to them losing self confidence.
Such punishment doesn’t help the students in any way. In fact it leads to them losing interest in school and studies.
The teachers should bear in mind that the corporal punishments could take the students away from studies and the schools. No student can be humiliated for any reason. Parents send their children to school with a hope that they would learn something and would come out from the institutions as responsible citizens. They don’t enroll them in educational institutions to get humiliated.