There
have been 4,556 cases of ‘severe corporal punishment’ of children in
Swaziland’s schools over the past four years, an international news
organisation reported.
Star Africa quoted Zanele Thabede from youth group
Super Buddies, who leads a team looking into youth and child issues, who in an
interview said the number of whippings dated from 2012.
Star
Africa reported Thabede saying, ‘Corporal punishment by teachers and principals
is legal and routinely practiced and there is a growing trend of incarcerating
of children and youth in the Malkerns Industrial School for Rehabilitation
because of “unruly” behaviour.’
There is confusion in Swaziland
as to whether corporal punishment has been banned in schools. It is believed
that a directive was issued to schools in 2012 not to use corporal punishment
but few teachers appear to know it had been made.
The Times of Swaziland reported in
October 2015 that Phineas Magagula, Minister of Education and Training, warned
that teachers who beat pupils should be reported to the ministry so that they
could be disciplined.
Swaziland has a long history of
atrocities committed by teachers against their pupils in the name of
‘discipline’. Although there were rules about how corporal punishment
could be administered, these were largely ignored.
As recently as September 2015,
the Times 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 2015,
the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in
effect owned by King Mswati III and the voice of the traditionalists in
Swaziland published an article against the abolition of corporal
punishment.
Observer
journalist Fanyana Mabuza wrote that if corporal punishment was
abolished, ‘[T]he future could be bleak, especially for the children who for
their own good need a bit of spanking to bring them to order.’
The article in the Observer, a newspaper that believes
Swaziland will be a ‘First World’ nation by 2022 added, ‘We just do not see the
future clearly without the cane in our schools.’
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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