Caning in Ghana Schools

Published Today :)

It is often impossible to turn on the television or read a newspaper without being subjected to disturbing images of brutality. Soap operas regularly use plots involving murder, rape and cruelty. Children grow up exposed to violence in everyday society and unfortunately for many, it’s an emblematic representation of their school life.
Caning is rife in schools in Ghana. It is theoretically used as a form of punishment for a student and behaviour that is deemed unacceptable in the classroom. In 2009, a child from the Central Region was caned so brutally by her teacher that she later died from her injuries. This appalling act should never have been allowed to happen in a civilised society.
My own teaching experience indicated that there was no differentiation on the number of slaps inflicted on the child. A child who stole, turned up late for school or disrupted the lesson was given the same as a child who simply didn’t know the answer to a question asked by the teacher. It is very difficult to comprehend such behaviour when surely, the role of a teacher is to educate, not chastise a child who is struggling to understand a particular question or subject.
The continuous use of the cane in the school environment imprints on the minds of children that violence is the best way to resolve issues. During my time working as a teacher , I’d frequently witnessed small children fighting, often hitting, punching, slapping and biting each other.
 One has to wonder if the prevalence of this behaviour stems from the daily use of the cane in the classroom.
On one occasion when I worked as a teacher, a girl from the kindergarten class was caught stealing food from another pupil’s bag. The girl was immediately led outside to the playground, and beaten so badly with a large plank of wood that she started bleeding and lost one of her teeth. Afterwards, she was told to sit down and was ignored for the rest of the day.
No mention was made of the reasons why the child was compelled to go looking for food. I’ve witnessed children being caned simply because they were in the way of the teacher as they walked past, for accidently dropping a pen during a lesson or for whispering to a friend in the classroom. Some teachers seemed to do it purely without cause or reason, and showed delight in doing so.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) has said they frown upon the unnecessary use of the cane in classroom and asked that if a child is to be caned, is it done out of the classroom and to a maximum of six times. This is something that I feel has to be strictly enforced and adhered to.
Using the cane excessively as a means of discipline is never going to work. It is an infringement of human and child rights to beat a child for not knowing the answer to a mathematics problem or not understanding the differences between ‘their,’ and ‘there.’ This is surely a sign of failure on the part of the teacher, yet time and time again, students are caned for those sort of reasons.
This type of behaviour on the part of the teacher instils fear in children and could possibly cause them to be afraid to speak up in class.
Physical violence as a means of discipline is not in the best interest of the child. There is no way to monitor the level of abuse suffered by children, often for things that are insignificant and would benefit from other forms of punishment. I’ve spoken to a number of children who said they’d prefer different punishments such as weeding or cleaning. For older children especially, continuous use of the cane can be humiliating.
Compared to working with schoolchildren in my home country of Scotland, Ghanaian children are extremely respectful and well-behaved in the classroom and have the utmost respect for authority and adults. Admittedly this could stem from fear of the cane on the part of the child, but I believe In Ghana, respect for elders is a deep- rooted cultural value, something which is severely lacking in Scotland.
Using the cane is a complex issue. I understand why some teachers feel the need to use it; coping with large classes is no easy task and for many, it’s something they’ve been brought up with, and believe in; change is not going to come easily.
But instilling fear in a child is not a good teaching method. I know children who are so terrified of their teacher they literally hide every time they see them outside the classroom. I believe it is time for teachers to adapt to new methods of discipline that do not require the use of the cane.