Corporal punishment exposes children to abuse, violence

March 18, 2012

The home and school are considered first and second homes of children.

The safety of children in these places however is put to the test with the prevailing culture that still considers corporal punishment as part of the discipline regimen on children.

“Most of the reported cases of violence on children however happened at home,” said Emma Patalinghug, child welfare specialist of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

She said it’s already a cultural norm for most families to inflict corporal punishment whenever a child commits mistake.

“We can’t also blame the parents of these children. Probably they have also these experiences (of being disciplined when they were growing up),” Patalinghug said.

Wilfredo O. Tano, Administrative Officer of DepEd Region 7-Cebu City Division, said corporal punishment is still happening in schools.

Tano, currently the Dep-Ed’s education program supervisor of private schools, said the government’s policy is not to tolerate it.

The online edition of Encylopedia Brittanica defines corporal punishment as inflicting of phyical pain upon a person’s body as punishment for a crime or infraction..”

Nelma Ople, a 27-year-old mother of two, shared her experience in school corporal punishment 20 years ago.

She said her experience of being beaten up by teachers in Grade 1, as a form of disciple is still fresh in her memory.

“I was called by my teacher to answer on the board a division problem. For five minutes, I was still in front of the black board staring on my Mathematics book. I was scared because I don’t know the answer. The next thing I knew, my teacher got the book that I was holding and struck me at the back, hitting my head on the board,” she said in Cebuano.

Read full article @ cebudailynews.wordpress.com