Seminar on corporal punishment: 35,000 school students drop out every year

* Speakers demand repeal of Section 89 of Pakistan Penal Code, code of ethics for teachers

ISLAMABAD: Thirty-five thousand students drop out of high school every year in the country due to corporal punishment in schools and homes, said Qindeel Shujaat, Executive Director, Society for Protection of Rights of the Child (SPARC), in a seminar “Media Consultation on Child Rights and Protection Issues” on Wednesday.

SPARC, an NGO, in collaboration with Royal Norwegian Embassy and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation organised the seminar.

Shujaat said corporal punishment in schools and homes, a culturally accepted form of child abuse, had resulted in high dropout rate from schools and ever-growing number of runaway children on the streets.

Shujaat said Pakistan had one of the highest dropout rate from schools in the world that is 50 per cent and there were about 70,000 street children nationwide.

“It also adds to the army of child labourers because if 25 million children are out of school, they either work as labourers or become a potential child labour,” Shujaat pointed out.

Code of ethics: Speakers demanded repeal of Section 89 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which allows parents, teachers and guardians to punish their child and urged government to prepare a code of ethics for teachers.

“The school administration policy should have a monitoring component to check corporal punishment and the government should have its own monitoring mechanism for at least public schools,” they demanded. The speakers regretted that last year saw a new development of child suicide bombers in the country.

They suggested that children of age group 5-7 must be enrolled and the falling dropouts in the age group of 8 to 12, should be offered fast track non-formal courses and be maintained in regular education. He demanded that children, who were illiterate and were above 13, should be educated in basic literacy and vocational training.

They recommended that union councils should be asked to ensure that every child in their locality attended school.

Highlighting the causes and consequences of corporal punishment, a speaker, Fazila Gulzar, said that it promoted the culture of power and blind obedience to authority. “The act is made lawful through Section 89 of the Pakistan Penal Code which empowers parents, teachers and other guardians to use corporal punishment as a means to discipline and correct the behaviour of under-12 children,” she said.

She regretted that parents and teachers considered it a justified way to train a child but most of the time wreaked their frustration on the child as they were in a vulnerable position and could not retaliate.

Discussing the alternative ways to discipline a child without injuring his or her self-respect, dignity and values, Humaira Butt, School Project Coordinator for SPARC, said that the difficult but correct way was to develop communication with the child and involve him or her in some responsibilities. “Setting up a good example is another tried and tested formula,” she said.

A documentary about child labour in connection with the International Labour Day was also screened on the occasion. Producer Sajjad Gul also aired clippings of his upcoming programme on kids’ court, which focuses on empowering children by educating them about their right.