Caning better than other forms of punishment, says Minister

by Ananda KANNANGARA

Child Development and Women's Affairs Minister Tissa Karaliyadda has expressed concern over school teachers imposing stringent punishment on students and added that children should be only caned rather than being subject to other forms of punishment.

The Minister also focussed attention on a recent incident where a Deputy Principal of a school at Gampaha had been allegedly assaulted by a parent for warning his daughter, a student in the same school for not wearing the uniform at the prescribed length, for shaving eye-brows and also applying cutex on fingernails.

Minister Karaliyadda told the Sunday Observer that such incidents would not occur had the regular parent-teacher Associations been held by the school authorities to bridge the gap between teachers, parents and children.

He said children should be made aware about school regulations rather than impose stringent regulations on them.

It is also reported that a principal of a popular boys school in Colombo is in the habit of slapping children when they are found guilty of committing even simple offences and a mother of a grade eight child had complained to the Education Department about an injury caused to her son's ear following such punishment.

Recalling his school days in 1969 at Nalanda College, Colombo, Minister Karaliyadda said teachers and Principals in the good old days warned children without resorting to other forms of punishments.

He called upon school teachers to refrain from imposing all sorts of punishment on students, as such punishment could cause severe injuries to them and they may even give up education as a result.