Teachers' Voice – Nigeria - VSO

7.3.4 DISCIPLINE OF STUDENTS: STAKEHOLDERS’ VIEWS“In one of the rural schools we visited for workshops, beating is so endemic to thesystem that it has two ‘discipline teachers’ in the school yard whose job consists solelyand all day of thrashing a never-ending stream of children sent out of their classroomsfor ‘punishment’ for one reason or another. We witnessed that any child found in theschool yard during teaching hours gets beaten automatically, even if the child is sentto the headmaster with a sick note!”(VSO education researcher)In some schools, older children substitute for the teacher on break, instilling discipline on theirclassmates.“In every overcrowded classroom, even in those where the smallest are taught (fouryears and over) selected children have sticks to help the teacher. They are equippedwith a stick, a length of rubber tubing or a whip to keep ‘order’ among their classmates. And they use them too!”(VSO education researcher)This passing of discipline enforcement from the teacher to the student enforces and replicatesthis process of violence. Most stakeholders, including teachers, broached the subjectthemselves during interviews.“No thought goes into proper disciplining. Beating is still widely accepted and nobodythinks of what this does to a child.”(SUBEB representative)“There is still widespread support for beating as a means of control. Parents actuallyask for it and teachers are proud of their ‘control by cane’.”(School inspector)“Children are often beaten black and blue, and yet parents never complain!”(Community member)“This mindless cruelty will only change if Nigeria implements the Convention on theRights of the Child and makes beating an offence by law.”(Head teacher)The Nigerian government encourages schools to relax corporal punishment and insists that allbeatings be recorded in a book kept by the head teacher of the school. However, schoolinspectors assure us that checking on this is not part of their duties.Some stakeholder and community members are adamant that relaxation of corporalpunishment would deprive teachers of the only means they have to maintain discipline andcontrol, while other community members assert “teachers abuse students excessively and arenot committed to their work”.7.3.5 DISCIPLINE OF STUDENTS: RECOMMENDATIONSVSO recommends the following:• The FME should begin to take steps to reduce the use of corporate punishment over a period oftime until it is abolished, upholding the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The NCCE andSUBEB should begin training on positive forms of discipline in the classroom.44