‘Stop using corporal punishment as discipline tool’
Members of the Pong-Tamale Experimental Primary School Child Rights club have appealed to teachers and parents to use alternative discipline approaches to correct children when they go wrong, instead of corporal punishment.
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They said that was necessary to ensure the safety of children both in school and at home, since the use of corporal punishment rather made them timid and also toughened them to stay away from school.
The children made the appeal at a community durbar organised by Right To Play Ghana, a child-centred non-governmental organisation (NGO), to discuss the development of life skills for children and some of the key barriers to quality education at Pong-Tamale in the Savelugu-Nanton Municipality in the Northern Region.
The event, dubbed “Promoting Children's Rights to Education through Play," was held to contribute to the Play for Advancement of Quality Education (PAQE) Project, funded by the Global Affairs Canada under the Canadian Government and being implemented by Right to Play in eight countries across the globe.
The project is aimed at enhancing children’s education and will also build the capacity of 450 teachers from the three regions of the north in the use of the child-centred play-based approach in teaching.
Child Rights Clubs
At a durbar held at the Pong Tamale Experimental School Park, members of the school’s Child Rights Club (CRC) used various drama sketches to sensitise traditional authorities, teachers, parents, community members and other duty-bearers to negative barriers to quality education in the community.
Among the key issues raised by the CRC through the drama were corporal punishment both in school and at home, which they said affected children's education. They also spoke against open defecation by drawing attention to the fact that some members of the community did not have places of convenience and resorted to defecating in the open.
That, they said, had resulted in rampant cases of diarrhoea and cholera in the community, which also affected children in school and caused them to absent themselves from school, thus impacting negatively on their academic work.
The club members also appealed to the traditional authority and other stakeholders to provide places of convenience for the various households and also use alternative discipline approaches rather than corporal punishment and emotional punishment (insults, the use of harsh words, etc.) which tend to cause emotional and physical pain on children and affect their safety, both in school and at home.
Right To Play Ghana
The Country Manager of Right To Play Ghana, Mrs Ethel Sakitey, reminded parents, teachers, community leaders and children on their roles and responsibilities in the development of children.
She discouraged teachers and parents from the use of corporal punishment and verbal abuse on children, since that did not promote their development.
The Vice President of Right To Play Africa, Dr Katrin Imhof, advised parents to show much interest in the education of their children, since it was a positive step to bridge the gap between the poor and the rich and the developed and the under-developed.
Stakeholders
For his part, a representative of the Savelugu Municipal Education Director, Mr Alhassan A. Fusseni, expressed his appreciation to Right To Play for its role in the development of education in the Savelugu Municipality and urged parents to send their children, especially the girl child, to school and also provide children with their basic educational needs to enable them to progress to reach greater heights.
The Headmistress of the Pong-Tamale Experimental School, Madam Jennifer Bittor, also expressed her gratitude to Right To Play Ghana for providing a platform for the schoolchildren to interact with their community leaders, parents, teachers and members of their community through drama.
Right To Play also used the occasion to donate teaching and learning materials to schools at the durbar.
