By Sandun A Jayasekera
Laws will be introduced to make it a punishable offence to give corporal punishment at schools, children’s homes or at prisons, government sources said yesterday. A Women Empowerment and Child Welfare Ministry official said the laws would prevent prison authorities from treating prisoners in a manner that violated their rights. He said the November 2001 Education Ministry circular which requested teachers and principals not to use corporal punishment on errant students as a means of disciplining them had not brought the expected results.
The ministry official said in many instances parents had lodged police complaints and even resorted to legal action against school authorities for punishing their children and added that parents and school authorities had clashed on several occasions on this matter.
The prime mover of this exercise is The Save the Children organization which has activated the process to abolish corporal punishment in Sri Lanka as a global obligation and in keeping with international conventions and laws.
The Save the Children is in constant contact with the government institutions that have a direct bearing on the subject and on drafting necessary legislation.
Save the Children representative Menaca Kalyanaratne said parents hit and humiliate children when they are tired or stressed out or believing it was a way to discipline their children. But Hitting, humiliating and other violent methods harm children physically, lower the children’s self-confidence, make them feel fearful and depressed, encourage them to be aggressive, create anger and resentment damaging the parent-child relationship“Physical and humiliating punishment do not teach children what we want them to learn. It is as simple as that,” she said.
Ms. Kalyanaratne said positive discipline was an approach to teaching that guides children’s behaviour, while respecting their right to a safe environment, protection from violence and participation in their learning. “If positive discipline is not sufficient to control children they can be disciplined by using other methods such as preventing them from watching TV,” she said.
Laws will be introduced to make it a punishable offence to give corporal punishment at schools, children’s homes or at prisons, government sources said yesterday. A Women Empowerment and Child Welfare Ministry official said the laws would prevent prison authorities from treating prisoners in a manner that violated their rights. He said the November 2001 Education Ministry circular which requested teachers and principals not to use corporal punishment on errant students as a means of disciplining them had not brought the expected results.
The ministry official said in many instances parents had lodged police complaints and even resorted to legal action against school authorities for punishing their children and added that parents and school authorities had clashed on several occasions on this matter.
The prime mover of this exercise is The Save the Children organization which has activated the process to abolish corporal punishment in Sri Lanka as a global obligation and in keeping with international conventions and laws.
The Save the Children is in constant contact with the government institutions that have a direct bearing on the subject and on drafting necessary legislation.
Save the Children representative Menaca Kalyanaratne said parents hit and humiliate children when they are tired or stressed out or believing it was a way to discipline their children. But Hitting, humiliating and other violent methods harm children physically, lower the children’s self-confidence, make them feel fearful and depressed, encourage them to be aggressive, create anger and resentment damaging the parent-child relationship“Physical and humiliating punishment do not teach children what we want them to learn. It is as simple as that,” she said.
Ms. Kalyanaratne said positive discipline was an approach to teaching that guides children’s behaviour, while respecting their right to a safe environment, protection from violence and participation in their learning. “If positive discipline is not sufficient to control children they can be disciplined by using other methods such as preventing them from watching TV,” she said.
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