The Katsina State government has initiated moves to end corporal punishment in its schools, as part of measures to reduce the number of students abandoning their studies.
“Henceforth, any principals or teachers found administering corporal punishment on students and pupils will be dealt with,“ Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, Lawal Buhari Daura, warned on Thursday in Katsina.
He spoke at a sensitisation meeting on ending corporal punishment in schools, organised in collaboration with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), for various stakeholders in the education sector including select students from across various schools in the area.
Daura said that corporal punishment had posed a great challenge for several years as that measure of correcting erring students contributes immensely to the rise in the number of children who abandon school in protest.
He defined corporal punishment to also include hard Labour, bullying and the use of abusive language on students and pupils.
In his remarks at the programme, the state Coordinator of the Teachers Registration Council, Lawal Sani Galadinchi, noted that studies on the prevalence of “school violence against children worsen school attendance, lower reading ability and lower safety when travelling to and from schools.
“These findings have a huge implication on the educational system in Nigeria and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
“Corporal punishment as commonly used in the school setting is the use of force on individual learners to inflict pain on them for correcting misconduct.
“The perpetrators are usually school leaders, teachers, matrons, bullies and the victims are usually the learners.
Discover more from LN247
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
