JVP calls for total ban on corporal punishment in schools

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) MP Bimal Rathnayaka urged the Government to immediately introduce legislation to impose a total ban on corporal punishment in schools.

By Sandun Jayawardana
Speaking during the debate on the Expenditure Head of the Ministry of Women & Child Affairs and Dry Zone Development, Mr Rathnayaka pointed out that corporal punishment was introduced under the British and was a legacy of colonialism. “There is no record of corporal punishment being practiced in pirivenas that existed hundreds of years ago,” he noted.

A total of 131 countries have already banned corporal punishment in schools. Some 58 countries have even banned physical punishment of children in the home. “Sri Lanka has signed conventions to protect the rights of children and as such, banning corporal punishment is something we should definitely do,” Mr Rathnayaka insisted.

“Some people say you can’t discipline children without hitting them. That is what you do to animals,” he emphasized.

He remarked that not even prison inmates guilty of serious crimes are being subjected to physical punishment, though children are subjected to it in schools on a daily basis. 

Authorities should take steps to educate teachers on how to discipline children without resorting to corporal punishment.