Children at a primary
school in Swaziland have boycotted classes because they live in fear of the
illegal corporal punishment they are made to suffer.
Local media report that
children are hit with a stick, which in at least one case is said to have left
a child ‘bleeding from the head’.
After years of physical
abuse of children, corporal
punishment in schools was abolished,
but teachers across the kingdom still use it.
The Swazi Observer reported on Monday (6 March 2017) that students
boycotted classes at Masundvwini Primary School because they were scared of
their teacher.
It reported that some parents,
‘have had their children come back from school with blood after being hit’ by
the teacher.
One parent was reported
saying, ‘My daughter always comes home complaining of a headache. She finally
told me that her teacher normally hits her in the head with a stick.’
The school said it would
investigate the complaints.
There is a long history in
Swaziland of the use by teachers of unusual forms of punishment in Swazi schools.
In August 2016, it was reported an eight-year-old
schoolboy was
thrashed so hard in class he vomited and it was feared he
might have had internal bleeding as a result. His teacher at Siyendle Primary
School, near Gege forced classmates to hold the boy down while he whipped him
with a stick.
In June 2016, a school
principal was reported to police after allegedly giving a 20-year-old female student nine strokes of the cane on the
buttocks at the Herefords High
School.
In September 2015, the Times of Swaziland reported a 17-year-old school pupil died after allegedly
being beaten at school. The pupil reportedly had a seizure.
In March 2015, a primary
school teacher at the Florence Christian Academy was charged with causing grievous bodily harm after allegedly giving 200 strokes of the cane to
a 12-year-old pupil on her buttocks and all over her body.
In February 2015, the
headteacher of Mayiwane High School
Anderson Mkhonta reportedly admitted giving 15 strokes to a form 1 pupil for not wearing
a neck tie properly.
In
April 2015, parents reportedly complained to the Ndlalane
Primary School after a teacher beat pupils for not following his instruction
and shaving their hair.
In October 2014, 20 pupils were thrashed before they sat an examination because they had
been absent from school studying for the exam the previous day.
In October 2011, Save the Children
told the United Nations Human Rights Periodic Review held
in Geneva that corporal punishment in Swazi schools was out of control. It
highlighted Mhlatane High School in northern Swaziland where it said pupils
were ‘tortured’ in the name of punishment. It said, ‘Teachers can administer as
many strokes [of the cane] as they desire, much against the limit stipulated in
the regulations from the Ministry of Education.’
In a separate case, girls at Mpofu High School were flogged by teachers on their bare flesh and if
they resisted they were chained down so the beating could continue. They said
they got up to 40 strokes at a time.
In another case, a 10-year-old girl at kaLanga Nazarene Primary
school was blinded for life in her left eye after a splinter from a teacher’s
stick flew and struck it during punishment. And, she was not the child being
punished. She was injured when her teacher was hitting another pupil, with a
stick which broke.
Another pupil in Swaziland
was thrashed so hard that he later collapsed unconscious and had
to be rushed to a clinic. Six pupils at Mafucula High school were thrashed with
20 strokes of a ‘small log’ because they were singing in class. It was reported that the boy who became unconscious was not one of
those misbehaving, but he was flogged nonetheless.
See also
SWAZI SCHOOL ‘TORTURES’ STUDENTS
CHILDREN CHAINED AND FLOGGED BARE
PROBE VICIOUS SCHOOL BEATINGS
SCHOOL FLOGGINGS OUT OF CONTROL
SCHOOL HEAD PUBLICLY FLOGS ADULTS
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/school-head-publicly-flogs-adults.html
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