Leveraging Educational Quality in Southern African Educational Systems: A Practitioners� Perspective

Chapter 3. How The Reluctance To Use Corporal Punishment In Public Schools Has Affected Mozambique’s Education System: Voices From Education Stakeholders

43 Chapter 3 How The Reluctance To Use Corporal Punishment In Public Schools Has Affected Mozambique’s Education System: Voices From Education Stakeholders Munyaradzi Mawere Abstract Corporal punishment in schools has been heavily debated in education studies in both developing and the developed worlds. While a significant number of studies have been conducted on this subject, most of them have emphasised the protection of children from all forms of physical and/or mental violence, injury or abuse perpetrated against them. Insignificant attention has been paid to the perceptions of some important education stakeholders such as parents and educators, of impacts of banning or relaxation in the use of corporal punishment on educational quality and quality education delivery. While the issue of corporal punishment is inexorably complex to address in its entirety in just one chapter and has been examined by many researchers, it remains a subject worthy of further interrogation particularly in culturally diverse, historically fragile (or even tumultuous) educational milieus like that of Mozambique. This study examines the effects of a reluctance to use corporal punishment on schools in Gaza province in Mozambique. Interviews and questionnaires were administered to one hundred education stakeholders (students, teachers and parents/guardians) from Gaza province. The study revealed that the majority of the respondents argued that a reluctance to use corporal punishment in schools has compromised the quality of education in the country. Respondents however expressed the role of the institution in institution in its regulation to avoid abuses. 44 Introduction The question of whether corporal punishment should be used as a tool to discipline students in public schools, has garnered considerable international attention since the dawn of the new millennium (Harvard Mental Health Letter 2002; Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 2002; Tharps 2003; Save the Children Sweden-Mozambique 2009; Cleynhas 2010). The question has been addressed by educators, legislators, students, national governments and the public in both developing and developed countries and a number of different interpretations and responses have been offered (Tharps 2003; Cleynhas 2010). The nebulous nature of corporal punishment coupled with the different interpretations evoked by its deployment across different situations and/or settings necessitates a robust comprehension of the concept and calls into question its practical manifestations and application in particular situated contexts such as educational settings. At another level, the tenuous nature of corporal punishment makes it both a cultural and, in part, legislative phenomenon. It is constitutes a cultural phenomenon because of its evolution within the broader social milieu of many societies/cultures the world. It has legislative connotations/due to codification in law of its consequences and impacts. While pressure groups and humanitarian organisations such as Save the Children and United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) initially lobbied for a ban of corporal punishment to protect prisoners and domestic workers, their strenuous efforts have recently been extended to include children at school and even at home. The demands have generated a storm of controversy and met with a great deal of resistance, not only from educators but from the general public as well. Divergent views and the tenuous nature of corporal punishment have caused many countries to delay or avoid its abolishment, and in some countries such as South Africa, although corporal punishment has been abolished it still goes on unabated with the lighter sentences passed on offenders. Likewise, some of the countries that have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) remain uncertain as to whether they should also enact 45 national laws against corporal punishment in their schools. Mozambique, a signatory of The United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), is presently considering national legislation that would ban corporal punishment in schools. Corporal punishment has been illegal in the county since 1994 when Mozambique ratified the Convention. The first move towards the implementation of the CRC did not come until 2002, when the CRC Committee requested that the country prohibit by law the use of corporal punishment in schools, care institutions and the family (Committee on the Rights of the Child-Mozambique, 2002). The Committee also requested that Mozambique reinforce public awareness campaigns to promote positive, participatory, non-violent forms of discipline as an alternative to corporal punishment at all levels of society. Although government directives have or discouraged it and addressed in the National Action Plan for Children since 2002, Mozambique has no explicit law that bans the administering of...