Dear Editor,
It was clear from the views expressed in the Stabroek News ‘What the people say’ column on Monday, June 11, that many people believe that children are no longer beaten in Guyana’s schools.
It is also clear that many people believe that the rise in violence, especially youth violence and violence in schools, is a result of the fact that ‘teachers cannot beat.’ Small children are beaten daily; the bigger ones are probably not beaten because they now seem to want to fight back.
The Ministry of Education in doing its consultations about beating children should make it clear that beating continues in the schools and that teachers are not likely to be penalised for beating, no matter how badly they beat the children (the most recent case shows that the teacher returned to school with a warning).
So those who yearn for the days of peace and harmony when children were beaten in schools, should know that Guyana’s misery now is not a result of teachers not beating children. It is a result of all of those who have been violated as children and who have not healed and cannot imagine that it is possible to live without violence towards children.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon