From January to June this year, 72 school children were meted out such punishments. Among them were nine girls, and 28 boys, while 25 are unidentified, according to the helpline of Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Center (CWIN). Only 13 of these cases were reported to CWIN Helpline for help. In 2008, there were 330 such reported cases (36 girls, 59 boys, 253 unidentified).
Though corporal punishment in schools is not legally banned, government has clearly outlined in its School Sector Reform Plan 2009-2015 that teachers should not apply any form of corporal punishment in schools. Corporal Punishment is also highly discouraged by the Ministry of Education which announced nationwide formal launching of ´Learn without Fear´ campaign in order to end the practice and to promote learning with dignity.
The problem of corporal punishment was rampant till a few years back.
In 2002, a father, who went to protest against the principal of Radhadevi Lions Boarding School, Om Prakash Saha, who severely beat his 10-year-old child Sunil Kumar Gupta, a grade two student for being absent a few days, was also beaten. Even today, cases like a principal hitting five school students for eating in the canteen of a school in Kapan VDC (June 2009) continue to take place.
Punishments in school have a variety of forms in the country. In the far-western region, schools punish students by asking them to fetch water from distant areas. And in 2008, Ram Kumar Rai, a student of Ghopa Primary School, Dharan was injured by a female teacher Manju Dhami who hit him with a pipe when he was not able to read what was written on blackboard.
“Under any circumstance, physical punishment is not the right way to discipline a student,” said Shyam Raja Malla, principal of Mahendra Bhrikuti Secondary School, Ekantakuna. “As a school principal, I wouldn´t dare use cane sticks as it would instead bring about negative consequences.” However, even reputed schools have continued to practice corporal punishment until as recently as in 2009.
Cases like a teacher shutting a student at expensive schools like Rai School, Gyaneshwar and beating students with cane sticks at Shuvatara School, Lamatar in 2009 have been highly controversial. While injuries are the immediate impacts of corporal punishment, the loss of interest in studies is probably a more serious and lasting impact.
In Nepal, a study found out that 14 percent of school drop-outs can be attributed to fear of teachers. According to Ganga Pathak, a child psychologist, students begin to fear their teachers and view them as enemies rather than concerned custodians charged with furthering their well-being and development, both mental and otherwise. Cases like broken legs, head smashing, alienation from society and mental disorders have been seen so far.
In 2008, when a sixth grader of a school at Surkhet was asked to write that he´d never lie again for a hundred times, he was so affected by the punishment that he considered himself ineffective and this later lead him to having psychological problems.
Several incidents of suicides have also been reported. Bhishma Dawadi of Soyak-7 had committed suicide on September 11, 2005 after his teachers and guardians scolded him for stealing a packet of noodles from a shop. Similarly, in 2005, Merina Chipalu, 12, of Ilam Municipality-1, burnt herself to death in a bathroom after a teacher scolded her for going out of the classroom without permission.
Akanchha Karki, a teacher of Rato Bangala School says that for preventing students from any kind of misbehavior she only raises her eyebrows to show her displeasure, which is enough for the students to know that they have overstepped the mark. Plan Nepal, UNICEF, Save the Children and other organizations have been involved in reforming laws and enforcement, promoting non-violent teaching and raising awareness against applying corporal punishment in schools.
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