Following a seminar on the issue, Salonaz Sami ponders corporal punishment School discipline has taken many and various forms throughout the world. But as a recent Centre for Egyptian Women Legal Assistance (CEWLA) report indicates, in Egypt the proverbial birch remains the order of the day. In fact its use is becoming more frequent. Last week at a discussion of the report, "Schools: Violence, Rehabilitation and Reform", the root causes of the phenomenon and its possible solutions were probed. According to Ihab Eid, Ain Shams University Child Behaviour Institute professor and one of the speakers, children are no longer safe at school, with violence occurring on a daily basis. "People need to realise that violence is not only demoralising but hampers learning ability, leading children to drop out of school or engage in anti-social behaviour as a result of depression and low self-esteem, and resulting in antipathy towards their school and the whole education system," said Eid. Most alarming of all, however, is the fact that "violence generates violence". Society must take "adequate, concrete measures to stamp out the abuse". Though pointing to unjustified violence all across the country, the CEWLA report, based on information on documented cases of violence in schools gleaned from both independent and state-owned newspapers in the period 9 September 2006-15 May 2007, remains "but a drop in the ocean" in the light of the fact that children routinely endure violence in silence out of shame or fear, which prevents documentation. Articles 28 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in connection -- granting the right to a life free of physical and mental abuse and the right to education, respectively -- substantiate Eid's point. The Ministry of Education's ban on the use of the birch and any other form of corporal punishment is summarily ignored by teachers, hence the need for "a framework through which to address" what Eid refers to as "sociable aggression" like violence perpetrated by those to whom the welfare of the child is entrusted. In the light of the tendency permeating society -- a consequence of social, political and economic oppression -- this is not as surprising as it seems: "teachers take out their frustrations on innocent children. It's a chain reaction. Ultimately, though, the chain of responsibility ends with the government which, under human rights law, is obliged to provide children with an environment in which they can fully enjoy their right to education without fear of retribution for ills of which they are entirely innocent." Over 71 per cent of the cases mentioned in the report occurred in Lower Egypt, according to the Centre for Alternative Development Chairman Mahmoud Mortada, another speaker, "because cities with high population density like Cairo and Alexandria are located there". In 37 of 63 cases, a child was canned, whipped or slapped by a teacher; in 11, a child was called names or falsely accused of and punished for an offence: "in some schools brutal corporal punishment is still routinely used to maintain classroom discipline, punish poor academic performance, talking in class or inability to answer a question." In some cases, corporal punishment is the teacher's way of retaliating against a student who has declined to attend their private tuition classes. Bruising, swelling and small cuts sometimes give way to a sprained or broken finger or wrist, an internal injury or indeed, occasionally, death. "A child who is sent to school to get an education," Mortada said, "comes home permanently disfigured, disabled, even dead." Two children were hung out of the window for hours after they exposed a love letter of their teacher's; a girl was forced to remove her trousers in front of the whole school when the headmistress found them too tight. "How," asks Eid, "can we trust such ill people with our children?" One guaranteed result of such treatment is that the child will grow up to be a violent person himself. "If their role models are doing it, won't they?" That 66 per cent of the cases occur in primary schools, on the other hand, is a result of children being "most vulnerable and unable to defend themselves at this age". Mortada believes, "we can no longer turn a blind eye". The phenomenon can no longer be dismissed simply as old-style discipline. And the report does offer a comprehensive understanding of the situation and recommendations for preventative measures and follow-up mechanisms to ensure the children's protection: psychological tests and training courses should be made compulsory for teacher appointments; teacher's salaries should rise -- something Mohamed Darwish, a teacher who was present at the discussion, agreed with: "teachers have a very tough job and their pay is very low. It's no excuse, of course, but it has to be addressed if things are to improve." Though only a few teachers resort to violence, he added, "they affect the social perception of teachers as a group". Classroom size is one of the main reasons behind corporal punishment, Darwish added, since a teacher can only pay attention to so many students and "it becomes next to impossible to control a classroom of unreasonably large size". Yet the report is not sympathetic: teachers who resort to violence must be punished, suspended if necessary; children must be made aware of their rights. As Mortada puts it, "children should be involved in formulating the regulations applied to them in schools. After all, they are our future."
