Ghanaian Times

Concerned Parents? Association against caning



In a front page story, the Times reports that the Concerned Parents? Association yesterday reiterated its position that corporal punishment be prohibited by law in lined with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.



The Association, the paper says, quoted extensively from the Convention and suggested that until a well-defined set of regulations and guidelines for punishment are released by the Ministry of Education, the cane should be removed from the classroom and placed in the head teachers? office.



According to the Association, this would prevent the tendency for teachers to readily fall on the cane as a tool for punishment. The Association said instead, teachers should be made to get to the head teacher?s office and justify the reason for the use of the cane. "The issue of corporal punishment has been favourable to some parents and unfavourable to others.



Since there has been no pronouncement on this, we suggest that if and when corporal punishment is administered, it should be confined to prescribed areas", the Association is quoted as saying.