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Wa, Ghana – Acting Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Children, Madam Matilda Chireh, has applauded the Ghana Education Service (GES) for the ban on caning in Primary and Senior High schools in the country.
Though some people are of the opinion that Ghana risks a total breakdown of discipline in schools and within the larger Ghanaian society if the GES relax caning otherwise known as corporal punishment, she disagreed with that assertion and said it cannot be true.
She called on teachers across the country to come out with innovative ways of correcting children in school.
Madam Matilda noted that the power of the Ghanaian teacher lies in his or her ability to impact knowledge into their students and not in their ability to use the cane.
Madam Matilda Chireh made this known in an exclusive interview on Tuesday with this reporter.
Madam Matilda Chireh also urged teachers and parents to usually make children understand why they are corrected with a particular punishment so they do not repeat such misbehaviours.
The GES in a recent statement reiterated the ban on caning in primary and secondary schools, and ordered the schools to immediately adopt a new disciplinary toolkit together with alternative sanctions as measures for correcting pupils and students.
The GES statement, signed by the Deputy Director General, Anthony Boateng said, “This is in view of the Positive Discipline Toolkit containing positive and constructive alternatives to correcting children was developed in 2016 as a component of the Safe Schools Resource Pack.”
The tool indicated that “apart from the physical pain corporal punishment inflicts on children, this approach also causes significant emotional damage. Some of the lasting effects of this method of disciplining school children include physical scars, emotional scars (trauma, fear, timidity etc.) and violent behavior.”
Steps to address inappropriate student behavior as suggested by the toolkit include setting class rules with students, encouraging them to be of good behavior, getting students to recite statements periodically to confirm their adherence to standards of behavior set for the classroom.
They also include explaining to the child why a particular behavior he or she has exhibited is unacceptable.
Recommended punishments for children as suggested by the toolkit include withdrawal of responsibility or removal from a leadership position, cleaning, changing of seating position, assignment of extra tasks and writing of lines, eg. A full book of “I will never talk in class again.”
By Savannahnewsonline.com/Mavis Okyere
