MUST WATCH THE VIDEOS TO SEE THE CRUELTY & ANIMOSITY OF OUR TEACHERS IN SCHOOLS (ZNK):
Relatives of Noel Bichima, a secondary school student who died after receiving 12 strokes of the cane from three teachers on Monday, stand beside a casket bearing his body shortly after it arrived at Dodoma Referral Hospital yesterday for postmortem.
Education stakeholders who spoke with The Citizen yesterday said, the government should pursue alternative forms of punishment in schools instead of lashes which they believe play an insignificant role in helping schoolchildren to change their behaviour.
Dar/Dodoma. A recent incident in which a student died after being caned by his teachers has stirred a debate on corporal punishment in schools, with many commentators calling for its abolition.
Education stakeholders who spoke with The Citizen yesterday said, the government should pursue alternative forms of punishment in schools instead of lashes which they believe play an insignificant role in helping schoolchildren to change their behaviour.
On Monday, a Form Two student at Matui Secondary School, Noel Bichima, received 12 strokes of the cane from three teachers for obtaining a low grade in a Kiswahili test. He died soon after.
Speaking with The Citizen yesterday, Executive Director of the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), Dr Hellen Kijo-Bisimba, said caning children in schools should be abolished because it causes them unnecessary discomfort and trauma.
“We have for years urged the government to abolish this form of punishment in schools because it’s against children’s rights, but we have been ignored,” she said.
For her part, the coordinator of the Tanzania Education Network (TEN/MET), Ms Cathleen Sekwao, said local NGOs and some UN agencies have been campaigning against lashes to no avail.
She said, “Though we want the punishment eliminated, communities are letting us down because some parents think caning a child is the right thing to do.
The secretary general of Tanzania Association of Managers and Owners of Non-government Schools and Colleges (Tamongsco) Mr Benjamin Nkonya, said using the cane was a sign of administrative failure.
“It is likely that teachers are not well motivated and do the way they think is right. But at the same time, most of the private schools don’t use lashes but the students are disciplined and they perform well academically compared to those in public schools,” he argued.
Commenting through his facebook account, Prof Kitila Mkumbo called for the abolition of corporal punishment.
“I have always been against this form of punishment. It is a primitive way of motivating students and it is unacceptable,” he said.
Prof Mkumbo said the death of the student in Kiteto was a reminder that caning students was a wrong way of making a learner perform better.
Meanwhile, the body of Noel Bichima arrived at Dodoma Referral Hospital yesterday for further postmortem.
Assistant Medical Officer Dr Zainabu Chaula confirmed to have received the body. He said that doctors continued with the examination to establish the exact cause of the boy’s death.
The deceased’s grandfather, Mr Emmanuel Ngowi told this paper that they have been compelled to send the body here following poor scanning apparatus and other relevant facilities with the Kibaya hospital at Kiteto districts were they had first took the body.
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