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[TD="class: contentheading"]Did the deputy minister for Education get it right?
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[TD="class: createdate"] Tuesday, 16 April 2013 12:41
The Citizen
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By Edward Qorro Corporal punishment is restricted in schools and can only be administered under supervision for extreme cases of indiscipline.
But even then, caning children as a way of controlling their wayward behaviour remains a big puzzle as it has been confirmed by experts that it is not an effective way of reinforcing positive behaviour.
However, even with full knowledge of such facts, the deputy minister for Education and Vocational Training Phillipo Mulugo was under the spotlight after he said that plans were underway to ‘reinstate corporal punishment' in Tanzania's schools.
The minister argued that doing away with caning in schools has afforded children space to misbehave, something that he says has been a major factor in the plummeting performance in national exams.
"We are witnesses to this, we can all testify how removing caning in schools has even made matters worse," said the deputy minister.
Well meaning as the minister might have intended his remarks to be, they rubbed industry players the wrong way. They say that the minister was misinformed and that the absence of caning isn't the cause of massive failures.
They insist that the minister has missed the point, and that he should go back to his drawing board and think of other means without derailing the gains recorded in the sector already.
Mr Ezekiel Oluoch, Secretary General for Tanzania Teachers Union says according to different studies, there was no direct link between corporal punishment and good performance or even indiscipline in schools. According to him corporal punishment places parents and teachers in positions where they may have to choose between educational advancement and students' physical well-being.
"I don't agree with our minister, as a teacher when you cane students they hate you, which is not good when you are determined to make them understand what you are teaching," says Mr Oluoch.
The outspoken secretary general says that counselling, if practiced, will turn things round.
"You could mete some serious punishment on a child without knowing the problem he is facing, the best solution is to talk and find out what the problem really is," he says.
Meeting of minds
Sharing similar sentiments is Prof Issa Omary Mcholo, from the Open University of Tanzania (Out), who believes that there has never been any indication that caning students would help to bring them on track in matters to do with discipline.
In fact, he says many children who have been subjected to hitting, paddling or other harsh disciplinary practices have reported subsequent problems with depression, fear and anger.
These students frequently withdrew from school activities and disengaged academically.
Just like Mr Oluoch, the don is of the opinion that a good teacher would never resort to caning students in the name of discipline; instead the counselling approach needs to be put in place.
"This can't be a laughing matter by any means especially when your minister misses such an important point, it is such a primitive way to think that caning our children would help them prosper academically," says Prof Mcholo.
The academician goes further saying that caning students was against the spirit of human rights as proclaimed in the United Republic of Tanzania's Constitution of 1977.
The legal position
While the two commentators opposed corporal punishment, section 60 of the National Education Act of 1978 provides for it.
In 1979, the ministry of Education issued a circular on corporal punishment regulation (undisciplined students were to receive six strokes of the cane) and since then the directive has never been repealed.
Decades later in 2000, Mr Joseph Mungai, the then minister for Education, issued further guidelines on how to administer corporal punishment to pupils. Per those guidelines, caning of students was reduced to four sticks from the previous six, and it was only the head teacher who had the authority to administer such punishment.
Root causes
Last year's Form Four examination results were greeted by a public outcry, with many wondering where the country's education was destined.
In a move to quell the tension, the government through Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda, tasked a commission to investigate the spiralling rates of failure, which had reached their peak in last year's exams. The commission is yet to reveal causes of the dismal performance, but some ministers have already thrown their weight behind it.
"The commission will give us a clue over what happened and what should be the cure for massive failures in our education system," says Mr Kassim Majaliwa, who handles the education docket in the Premier's office.
Some of the key players have also levelled blame on the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (Necta), saying it was behind the massive failure.
According to minister Majaliwa, there is an urgent need to give the Pinda Commission a chance to find out the root cause of the problem and suggest corrective measures, adding that parents should not be exempted from blame when it comes to the falling standards of education in the country.
But even as the Pinda Commission puts together its findings, there are those who think its findings might not be new as a similar commission was formed three years ago.
Are parents also to blame?
Commenting on the recent massive failures, Prof Herme Mosha, a senior lecturer at the University of Tanzania (UDSM) argues that many parents rarely discipline their children for any wrong doing.
"Many parents do not take their children's assignments seriously and they rarely check and sign their log books to ensure that the assigned homework is well done," says the don.
Prof Mosha adds that with the introduction of IT classes, many students now spend inordinate amounts of time on Facebook and other social networks instead of academic work.
The academician reserved some advice to heads of schools and teachers, saying that they needed to realise that time was the most inelastic resource, and it needs to be effectively managed.
Prof Mosha was also categorical that undisciplined teachers should no longer be tolerated in schools. "Undisciplined teachers need to be identified and their contracts terminated. We cannot continue allowing such teachers who teach at 2-5 different schools, rarely prepare lesson plans, mark students' assignments or provide specialised assistance to weak students to continue being members of staff. Not if we expect good performance," he says.
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