Some parents in Enugu on Monday frowned at the use of corporal punishment in nursery and primary schools in the state as a disciplinary measure to correct children.
The parents expressed their minds in separate interviews in Enugu, adding that corporal punishment had inflicted injuries on some of their children.
Emaka Onyia, said that his child came back home, one day, with an injury on her neck in October and complained that her teacher caned her in school.
Mr Onyia further said when contacted, the child’s teacher expressed remorse over the injury he inflicted on the pupil but insisted that intention was not to cause injury to the pupil.
Chioma Eze said her five-year-old child was always complaining of chest pain which medical test revealed was due to corporal punishment in school.
Mrs Eze said that her child had been telling her that their teacher always use her bare hand to hit pupils at the back any time they did something wrong in the classroom.
A civil servant, Edward Uchendu, said he was shocked on the day a teacher in one of the private schools gave a child of less than five years a smack.
Mr Uchendu, who said that the teacher claimed his action was in the name of instilling discipline, added that it took his intervention to stop the scenario.
“I witnessed child abuse in another form in a private school in Achara Layout where a teacher was beating pupils and passers-by could hear the sound of her hand on them.
“I went close to the classroom and asked her to stop or else I will report the matter to the state Ministry of Education and the police.
“The sound of the beating attracted my attention; she pushed the child who was just about four years’ old to the ground and beat her with her hand.
‘’I heard the beating, then went and confronted her; what if the child suddenly slumps or dies, what explanation will she give” he asked.
Mr Uchendu called on the state government to discourage or ban the use of corporal punishment in schools, especially in nursery and primary schools, because of the tenderness of the pupils.
In her reaction, a teacher, Agnes Uzoh said that corporal punishment was a means of instilling discipline.
She, however, condemned the use of bare hand by any teacher on the pupils in the name instilling discipline.
Miss Uzoh recalled an incident in 2016 when a student in Junior Secondary School (JSS III) nearly died from the corporal punishment.
She said she administered the punishment on the student for not been able to spell words correctly but said that she actually regretted her action.
NAN
