SCHOOL PUNISHMENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18465, 2 August 1934, Page 8

SCHOOL PUNISHMENT

QUESTION IN HOUSE COMPLAINT UNFOUNDED (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. In a question to the Minister of Education in the House yesterday, Mr. A. S. Richards (Lab., Ruskiil) asked whether, in view of the disclosure of the annual report of the inspectors of the Otago Education Board to the effect that not all teachers kept a record of corporal punishments, .as required by the regulations, and in contravention of by-laws prohibiting! corporal punishment as a teaching mol hod, the Minister would cause a memorandum to be sent to all teachers emphasising the provisions of the law and stating the determination of the department to have its by-laws loyally obeyed.

The Rt. lbm. (!. W. Forbes replied : “The. annual report of the Otago inspectors does not contain anything in the nature of a. disclosure in regard to corporal punishment The inspectors say that they regret that not all teachers kept records of corporal punishment as advised by the board in 1932, and they have evidence that corporal punishment has, in certain eases, been used as a teaching method. There are no regula-! Lions dealing with corporal punishment, and the majority of the boards do not require such a record to be kept. All boards, however, have' by-laws which deal very definitely with the infliction of corporal punishment. Recently the Education liepartment had boon in communication with the senior inspectors in regard to corporal punishment and finds that the practice is progressively wailing throughout the Dominion.”