(Jamaica Observer) Parliament will next month begin debate on a Green Paper which is expected to lead to legislation abolishing corporal punishment in all public schools, Education Minister Andrew Holness announced on Wednesday.
The announcement by the minister came in the wake of a Sunday Observer story which highlighted the plight of 11-year-old Tajoery Small who lost sight in one eye from a strap wielded by a fifth-grade teacher.
The Observer on Sunday reported that in the 2009 incident, the teacher — a member of staff at the New Providence Primary School in St Andrew — who had grown frustrated with another student’s behaviour, delivered a blow to the unruly child which struck Tajoery’s left eye as he sat on the bench the two children shared.
The accident caused major damage to the child’s cornea and lens and even after extensive surgery at the Bustamante Hospital for Children in St Andrew vision in that eye was still lost.
The education minister said that while the “use of moderate and reasonable corporal punishment as a means of disciplinary sanction is ‘legal’ in all schools in Jamaica except early childhood institutions”, the Government was in favour of changing the laws to reflect otherwise. This, he said, was also in keeping with the State’s obligations under the Convention of the Rights of the Child which Jamaica ratified in 1991.
“The ministry has sought to take all appropriate administrative measures to ensure that the use of corporal punishment is discontinued in Jamaican schools,” Holness said.
He made it clear, however, that “the ministry has no power to discipline or dismiss teachers who fail to comply with its policy directive against the use of corporal punishment”. The authority, he said, rested with the school’s board.
“Under the scheme of the Education Act and Regulations the minister may make regulations concerning the discipline of students in public schools and those schools must abide.
Under the current regulations, boards of management are responsible for the conduct and management of the institutions for which they are appointed.
The minister may provide policy directives on such matters, however, although such directives have strong administrative weight they do not amount to the force of law,” Holness explained.
According to the education minister, ensuring compliance with the prohibition without legal sanctions has proved challenging as the policy directive is subject to the individual views of the board members and school staff. He recalled an instance in which the ministry dismissed a teacher who had flogged a student but the court ordered the reinstatement of the person and damages were awarded against the Govern-ment for wrongful dismissal.
At the same time, Holness said the proposed legislative changes would not only prohibit teachers and principals from administering corporal punishment, but would ensure that schools become violence-free zones, meaning no parent will be able to beat their child at school. He, however, noted that for the reform to abolish the use of corporal punishment to be successful it must not only make provision for the prohibition of its use but also for the introduction of alternative disciplinary practices.
The minister said though that the ministry’s jurisdiction would not extend to what parents consider to be appropriate disciplinary measures for their children at home.
