Call for legislation on corporal punishment

Press, 30 August 1985, Page 4

Call for legislation on corporal punishment

PA Wellington Secondary schoolteachers will call on the Minister of Education, Mr Marshall, to legislate against the use of corporal punishment in schools.

The Post-Primary Teachers’ Association annual conference yesterday agreed that corporal punishment was no longer an appropriate form of discipline, and called for measures to be taken for its abolition, and for members to abandon the practice themselves.

The conference also called for Mr Marshall urgently to provide in-service training in alternative forms of discipline for those teachers who needed it.

The recommendation, agreed to by 97 votes to 12, means the association has a firm policy against corporal punishment, and brings it in line with Mr Marshall’s own stand on the issue. He has said he wants to see the practice gone from schools by the end of next year. The debate yesterday was marked by an acceptance that teachers had a professional responsibility to lead the way in helping eliminate corporal punishment. Several delegates remarked that it was to teachers’ shame that the initatives so far had been taken by Mr Marshall.

A Hamilton principal, Mr David Hood, said most

teachers no longer hit their pupils. He said people who talked of needing time to develop alternative forms of discipline were only making excuses for not getting rid of corporal punishment. “The only alternative necessary is the commitment not to use it,” he said. “It is time we took that commitment.” An Auckland teacher, Mrs Helen Watson, said that while it was true most teachers did not use the practice, in some schools it was still common, often for minor offences.

Only one delegate argued in favour of corporal punishment, although several said that many of their colleagues were opposed to

its being abolished.

Mr Pinky Green, of Tauranga, said he believed corporal punishment acted as a deterrent and that most of the public supported its retention as a last resort.

While teachers might cope without it, that did not necessarily mean they would cope well, he said.

However, Mr Hood said the concept of the last resort was a luxury which undermined the development of alternative forms of discipline.

The passing of the recommendations brought sustained applause and cheers from delegates.