The Cape Coast Metro Director of the Ghana Education Service, Madam Dorcas Brenda Asare has advised teachers to adopt other innovative ways of instilling discipline in school children aside from corporal punishments.
According to her, harsh forms of discipline usually cause severe physical injuries and make children more rebellious hence the need to find creative ways of disciplining them.
There have been a series of concerns raised by some teachers about the growing rate of indiscipline in Ghanaian schools.
The teachers blame the situation on the government’s decision to ban the canning of recalcitrant students in schools.
According to them, the students keep going wayward and pompous since their teachers cannot punish them.
These concerns have heightened following the case of the five Konongo Odumase Senior High School students who were arrested for allegedly stabbing a Form One student leading to his death.
In wake of this development, however, Madam Brenda Asare insists that having creative ways to discipline children without canning them is another effective way to tackle the issue of indiscipline.
She said “It is not all about canning because if they say we should not cane, we can also apply other forms to correct them. If they do not change then it’s up to them.”
“Disciplinary committees have also come in we have the Positive Disciplinary tools which teachers have been directed to use and for me, I think they should all go and look at what it says and start using it.” She added.
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She indicated that usually a well-behaved child is from a good home and it comes with ease in correcting such students due to the natural obedience to their elders.
But for the recalcitrant-behaved students, Madam Brenda notes it’s important for teachers to utilize the disciplinary tools to train the students in the way they should go.
In 2019, the Ghana Education Service ordered all schools to adopt a new disciplinary toolkit and alternative sanctions as measures for correcting pupils and students in schools.
The toolkit suggested recommended punishments for children to include withdrawal of responsibility or removal from a leadership position, cleaning, changing of seating position, assignment of extra tasks, and writing of lines, eg. A full book of “I will never talk in class again.”
Source: Vera Siripi/ATLFMNEWS
