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Thwaites: Teachers need training in alternatives to slapping
BY LUKE DOUGLAS
Observer senior reporter douglasl@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, November 30, 2012
EDUCATION Minister Rev Ronald Thwaites says teacher-training institutions need to emphasise alternative methods of disciplining students to corporal punishment.
He made the comment against the background of anecdotal reports that beating of students is still taking place in the country's schools.
(L-R) Carlene McCalla-Francis, principal of Kensington Primary..
THWAITES... under no condition should corporal punishment be used for academic deficiency
"I don't think we have been careful enough to give alternative measures of discipline in their (teachers') training and practice that can work," Thwaites told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday.
It (corporal punishment) appears to be more widespread from the anecdotal reports that one is getting."
The education minister yesterday received a report on the institutionalised beating of students by teachers at Kensington Primary in St Catherine, with the agreement of the Parent Teachers Association there.
In a report in this week's Sunday Observer, the parents of a nine-year-old girl said they were forced to withdrew their daughter from the school after the child was slapped for not achieving a perfect score in a test.
But principal of the school, Carlene McCalla-Francis maintained that slapping was a part of the school's policy and parents agreed to the practice when they were registered there.
Kensington primary has an outstanding record of academic success based on the Grade Four literacy and numeracy tests.
On Tuesday Thwaites, while reiterating his opposition to corporal punishment in schools, suggested that the practice could be carried out by principals in extreme circumstances.
"Under no conditions should corporal punishment be used for academic deficiency. I accept that there may be rare and severe incidents where a principal may be permitted to apply moderate corporal punishment to redress a serious infraction," he said.
The minister also dismissed the view that teachers and parents could agree for corporal punishment to be administered, as was done at Kensington Primary.
"In a public institution it is for the state to set the appropriate standards and any agreement that they are being asked to sign permitting teachers to administer corporal punishment in the wide scale way that was reported would not be proper," he sated.
Commenting on the use of corporal punishment, Principal of Allman Town Primary Kandi-Lee Crooks-Smith said the issue was not topical at her school and only a handful of parents requested that their children be hit.
However, Crooks-Smith has instructed her teachers not to carry out the practice not only because of the ministry's directive, but because it doesn't help students learn, and is too risky.
"In my school there are so many children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and other learning disorders; some are diagnosed, some are not. When a teacher is going to be slapping a child who is diagnosed with ADHD, that won't get the child to learn," she said.
"There are parents who will say to you 'slap dem and save the eye' but if you should ever miss and cause some injury to that child, they will never admit that they gave you permission to slap them," she added.
Crooks-Smith agreed that colleges and universities need to do more to prepare teachers in alternative disciplining strategies.
"Teachers don't know the reality until they get into the classroom for teaching practice. When a student says to you 'I don't have to do any work because me soon gone a foreign', no college can prepare you for that," she said.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2DiwudgTL
BY LUKE DOUGLAS
Observer senior reporter douglasl@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, November 30, 2012
EDUCATION Minister Rev Ronald Thwaites says teacher-training institutions need to emphasise alternative methods of disciplining students to corporal punishment.
He made the comment against the background of anecdotal reports that beating of students is still taking place in the country's schools.
(L-R) Carlene McCalla-Francis, principal of Kensington Primary..
THWAITES... under no condition should corporal punishment be used for academic deficiency
"I don't think we have been careful enough to give alternative measures of discipline in their (teachers') training and practice that can work," Thwaites told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday.
It (corporal punishment) appears to be more widespread from the anecdotal reports that one is getting."
The education minister yesterday received a report on the institutionalised beating of students by teachers at Kensington Primary in St Catherine, with the agreement of the Parent Teachers Association there.
In a report in this week's Sunday Observer, the parents of a nine-year-old girl said they were forced to withdrew their daughter from the school after the child was slapped for not achieving a perfect score in a test.
But principal of the school, Carlene McCalla-Francis maintained that slapping was a part of the school's policy and parents agreed to the practice when they were registered there.
Kensington primary has an outstanding record of academic success based on the Grade Four literacy and numeracy tests.
On Tuesday Thwaites, while reiterating his opposition to corporal punishment in schools, suggested that the practice could be carried out by principals in extreme circumstances.
"Under no conditions should corporal punishment be used for academic deficiency. I accept that there may be rare and severe incidents where a principal may be permitted to apply moderate corporal punishment to redress a serious infraction," he said.
The minister also dismissed the view that teachers and parents could agree for corporal punishment to be administered, as was done at Kensington Primary.
"In a public institution it is for the state to set the appropriate standards and any agreement that they are being asked to sign permitting teachers to administer corporal punishment in the wide scale way that was reported would not be proper," he sated.
Commenting on the use of corporal punishment, Principal of Allman Town Primary Kandi-Lee Crooks-Smith said the issue was not topical at her school and only a handful of parents requested that their children be hit.
However, Crooks-Smith has instructed her teachers not to carry out the practice not only because of the ministry's directive, but because it doesn't help students learn, and is too risky.
"In my school there are so many children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and other learning disorders; some are diagnosed, some are not. When a teacher is going to be slapping a child who is diagnosed with ADHD, that won't get the child to learn," she said.
"There are parents who will say to you 'slap dem and save the eye' but if you should ever miss and cause some injury to that child, they will never admit that they gave you permission to slap them," she added.
Crooks-Smith agreed that colleges and universities need to do more to prepare teachers in alternative disciplining strategies.
"Teachers don't know the reality until they get into the classroom for teaching practice. When a student says to you 'I don't have to do any work because me soon gone a foreign', no college can prepare you for that," she said.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2DiwudgTL
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