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June 2015
African School CP
(by Doreen Matisso, Kenya)
Corporal punishment in schools has a long tradition and is still practised even today despite all african countries have banned
it by special orders and laws. Where there is no accusation there will be no condamnation. It is also difficult to understand
the wrong in a society where corporal punishment is quite common in domestic education as well as legalized by justice for certain
crimes or offences. Authorities claim the right of practising CP, and belonging to these authorities are judges, policemen,
soldiers, teachers and many more who are in charge of subordinates or inferiors.
CP in our schools is never executed secretly but always in front of the class or with all pupils of the school watching. There
is no difference in age or gender. Perhaps teachers believe public beatings to be deterrent. A very early and rare video example
is a video from Sierra Leone where pupils are whipped on a stage with all other pupils watching. I found this video #1
at www.corpun.com. We don't know about the reason of this punishment, but the presentation looks like a regular punishment
resulting from a collection of offends, misbehaviour or lazyness which may have been compiled within a certain interval.
Today, as smartphones have found their way also into our countries and schools, there are some more secretly taken videoshots
available. Video #2 is from my country and it shows a collective outside beating of a class. Perhaps they did not find a culprit
and therefore this group punishment.
Pupils in video #2 seem to be from junior classes of a primary school. There is also another form of executing punishment where
teachers order senior pupils to beat younger ones or even classmates. You will see some examples in video #3. The teacher is
supervising a boy and a girl caning other pupils. He is just giving advice to beat harder or adjusting the position of the culprit
and the girl really follows his orders. Somewhat funny (if the caning would not be so serious) is to watch how also the
dust is beaten out of these torn trousers.
Video #4 documents a punishment in the classroom. The teacher delivers several cane stingers on the behinds of four boys with
about a dozen of girls watching. Later it is also the girls' turn to be punished. They are caned on their hands. I estimate
the age of these pupils about 12-14yrs.
Collective Punishment is very common if teachers are unable to find out single responsable wrongdoers. Instead of wasting time
to make an investigation they punish all classmembers. For shure the true culprit will be among them and all others will
regard it as a deterrent. This group punishment also reflects the inferior attitude of teachers on their subordinate pupils and
is an abuse of their power over weak creatures. This is not only cruel but also sadistic. In the following videos #4 and #5 you will
see examples of collective punishments. The pupils have to file up and each of them receives punishment before they are allowed
to go to their place and sit down. This proves that nobody is spared and after the boys its the girls' turn too.
The last video #6 from Ghana shows the caning on hands of very young children. This is absolutely disgusting. Instead of
encouraging the children to love school and their teachers, it creates an atmosphere of hatred and fear and this will never improve
performance or conduct of pupils.
This makes us understand that so many african children are failing in school although their parents really had to work so hard to
pay for their education hoping to provide them a better chance in the future.
Links to related reports:
 Corporal Punishment of Pupils in Togo La violence à l'école
When Studies and Love interfere
Schoolgirl punished to put Pressure on Parents
More african Catfighting
(Sources of videos: Youtube, facebook)
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