End corporal punishment
Demand speakers
The issue of corporal punishment should be viewed in a holistic approach and addressed by going deep into its root causes with taking logjams of entire education system into consideration, said speakers at a meeting.
Apart from proper enforcement of law, they stressed the need for a massive awareness among the teachers and families about the damage done by corporal punishment to prevent any form of physical and mental punishment.
The meeting titled 'Duties and formulating plans to stop corporal punishment in educational institutions' was organised by Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (Blast) at Liberation War Museum in the city yesterday.
The speakers said it is important to figure out why a teacher metes out the punishment to the students that could lead permanent psychological scars to them.
There are many educational institutions in the country where a teacher deals with more than 80 students including some unruly ones in a 45-minute class, they said, adding teacher's capacity to deal with such number of students should also be taken into consideration.
“Teachers need to learn how to motivate the students,” said Khalilur Rahman, coordinator of Barisal unit of Blast.
He said many teachers still believe that indulging in punishment is the easiest way to make the students disciplined. “So teachers awareness is a must,” he added.
A representative of Nalonda, a school of Chhayanaut, said educational institutions have a major role to play as institutions often take the issue lightly.
The speakers underlined the role of media in preventing the punishment and raising awareness as well.
Citing a survey done in 2009 by Unicef in her paper, Mahbuba Akter, coordinator, communication and advocacy of Blast, said around 99 percent of the 4,000 students surveyed faced such punishment in their own houses while 91 percent students in schools.
Lutfur Kabir, manager of Save the Children, moderated while Sara Hossain, honorary director of Blast, and advocate ZI Khan Panna were present.
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