Newmai News Network
Kohima | September 17
Schools in Kohima have been reportedly instructed not to impose corporal punishment on any student; rather create a free environment for learning and free of any fear or tension. Although the ban on corporal punishment is considered by many to be a positive development in school education, the debate is about how seriously schools, especially in remote rural areas, are taking the direction of the Supreme Court.
Banning it, the Supreme Court on December 1, 2000, had directed the states to ensure that children are not subjected to corporal punishment in schools and that they receive education in an environment of freedom and dignity, free from fear and tension.
In consonance with the Supreme Court’s directive and the recent guidelines issued by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the administration of Kohima district and School Education department have instructed all schools under its jurisdiction to stop corporal punishment in schools.
Recently, Kohima District Education Officer Zaveyi Nyeikha said students give up studies out of fear of various kinds of punishments imposed in schools, resulting in dropping out of school. He said some students are issued transfer certificates in the middle of the year, leading to loss of one academic year or even to dropping out of school altogether.
The DEO had urged the heads of institutions in Kohima to convene meetings with teachers, non-teaching staff, hostel wardens and proprietors and apprise them of the Supreme Court’s instruction.
On grounds of violation of the imposition, the DEO said that the school in concern will be at own risk. He added that parents have every right to retaliate in case of violation of the directions of the Supreme Court. It is believed that while disciplinary punishment provides an immediate response in correcting the student, abusive and violent punishment disturbs the student and violates his rights.
Every student growing up in any part of the country must have got a taste of a cane stick on the palms or the buttock for violating school rules or annoying a teacher. But it remains to be seen how teachers, who have been taught that to ‘spare the rod is to spoil the child’, respond and implement the direction of the Supreme Court.
Perhaps the system of education will now take a leap forward in an environment of freedom, free from the fear of punishment and humiliation. Yet it is also certain that the patience and nerves of some teachers would be tested.
