She was reacting to a recent savingram from the Ministry of Education that strongly warned teachers against the use of corporal punishment on students.
The statement reads thus; the ministry has been inundated with reports of incidents of excessive use of corporal punishment adding that some of the cases involve newly arrived learners who may not be able to settle well given the traumatic experience.
The same document states that excessive use of corporal punishment has a negative impact on learning and has the potential to fuel incidents of violence in schools. Corporal punishment in schools can only be administered through the delegation of the school head. Mosojane told Mmegi that she is against the model of punishment on students and described it as a background of social transition that the society finds itself on. In modern day Botswana, she explained that, there is need to acknowledge the reality that many school going children have been exposed to some form of dysfunctionality at some stages of their lives.
Adaptivity includes parental absenteeism, parental abuse of alcohol, violence in the family, poverty, separation or divorces to mention but a few. She said the rebellious behaviour displayed by students in schools is caused by the current dysfunctionality of families.
According to Mosojane, tumultuous family setups seem to be driving many school going students into rebellion, hence corporal punishment may drive them deeper into more resistance. Therefore, she said it was due to the background that she feels corporal punishment may no longer be a general panacea to address bad behaviour that most students display in schools. She stated that there is a need for each case to be treated differently so that appropriate correcting measures may be applied in order to address the needs of the students individually. Mosojane also called on government through the education system to consider consulting human behaviour experts to assist in designing correctional strategies for reform rather than applying punitive measures on individuals who are already suffocated by many other social pressures.
Human rights body, Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) has been vocal about the matter and called on the government to abolish corporal punishment in schools. BONELA argued that corporal punishment is a cruel degrading form of violence and a profound violation of human rights. Therefore, the same human rights organisation recommended a positive discipline methodology that takes into account the specific long-term educational goals that are trying to be achieved with the child thus building a structure of understanding, trust, safety, respect, warmth and love.
BONELA also suggested alternative forms of discipline such as writing of lines or essays, detention, or addition of tasks, homework, chores or projects. On the other hand, the Botswana Teachers Union (BTU) has also in the past raised concerns about corporal punishment and advocated for it to come to an end labelling it as brutality in the schools. The teachers union stated that corporal punishment was inhuman and violent as it violates the school going children’s rights.
