Intention behind corporal punishment in schools

Nobody would agree with the prospect of changing schools into torture chambers. Ensuring discipline among students in school is better said than done. In olden days, parents fed up with their mischievous children would request teachers to flog them to instil obedience and discipline.

Over the years, this culture died after the nuclear family concept took dominancein the state. Most parents these days avoid spanking their children for any mischief, nor do they tolerate news of their children getting spanked in school. It is an era where parents take legal measures against those teachers for using corporal punishment on students. It is a fact that there have been ample cases of teachers unleashing brutality on students for trivial reasons.

Nobody would want the floggings to return to schools, but if the intention is to make children better and correct their wrongs, such minor punishments cannot be avoided. The Kerala High Court yesterday clarified that it is not a crime for a teacher to physically punish a student with good intentions as part of ensuring discipline in school. The court made this clear in an order quashing further proceedings in a case registered by the Vizhinjam police against a school teacher in Vengannur, Thiruvananthapuram. The case filed by the parents blamed the teacher for beating the student with a cane after calling him to the staff room on February 10 last year. The family took the child to the doctor three days later and filed a complaint with the police. No injuries were found on the child's body during the examination. The court asked how the teacher, who had beaten the child with a cane without causing any injuries, could be held guilty on that basis alone.

A teacher is not just someone solely entrusted with the duty of making students learn what is written in the textbooks. They also carry the important duty of instilling in students the importance of discipline, obedience, how to treat others, kindness, empathy, and respect for family and teachers, and to mould them into good human beings. The teacher also has the authority to correct the child by giving him/her light punishments for disobedience or indiscipline. It is important to guide them to a morally righteous path, and if there is a need for lighter punishments, who can disagree?