WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE FOR CANNING AS A PUNISHMENT IN SHOOLS
Canning has been the mode of correction of habits and behaviors since the dawn of civilization. It is the obvious solution for punishment whenever a young one makes a mistake in the home and sometimes, it goes beyond the young ones in the home .Even elders in some communities have used it as punishment for wrong doers in those communities.
So, it was the obvious choice as punishment for pupils in schools. There had to be away of instilling discipline in the rogue pupils or for any other mistakes that might have risen among the school populations. Inflicting pain on the pupils’ asses to cause them to keep off those habits and behaviors or to cause them to be more careful so that they didn’t repeat those mistakes again. The fear of the pain caused by then cane on their asses caused the pupils to hold tightly o to the right ways of behavior and habits and methods of life in the schools or for the grown ups in the villagers ,to live according to the ways of life that were laid down by the elders of the community.
So, because of this, canning of pupils has been a method of life in Kenyan institutions of learning for a long time and up to now, despite its’ ban by the government, many teachers still use it and advocate for it strongly as the best way of correcting and steering the young people in to the right directions as expected of them by the elders in the society.
Despite the ban on the use of canning as a punishment for mistakes and general wrong doing in schools, but there has to be an alternative way of correcting or punishing wrongdoers in schools. It is this alternative that many of us do not have and hence ,we let the pupils go uncorrected and one time find out about the out come of not being corrected in their lives later for themselves .For those who are already beyond primary and secondary ,that is those who can decide for themselves ,it is possible to drop the method ,but what about the young ones in the ECD centers ,from baby class to class three?
Otherwise, Punishment for wrong doing in schools will be dropped all together. For late coming to school and missing the lessons and unexplained absenteeism, it might work yes but there are certain situations that it really wouldn’t work .There are some pupils who go beyond the normal misbehaviors of a pupil in a class or school that will need for disciplinary action to be taken against them .should they be punished in schools by the disciplinary masters or should we take them to court and judge and sentence them like fully mature men and women in the villages?
The method had its’ good side and bad side also .We talked to ECD teachers at Bondeni ECD center in Mombasa Ndogo estate in the Nygacho living areas of Kericho town, Mrs. Beatrice Koech and Madam Grace About the issue and what she said was enough proof that soon the country is going to drop the method as a disciplinary action against wrong doing in the school compounds.
The teachers said that canning the pupils, especially in ECD, made the pupils to hate the teachers so that the was hostility between the two and a hostile environment in the class and school in general .They said that this environment eventually lead to the lose of concentration in class work leading to the poor performance in class of the pupil or even stopping to come to school totally of the pupils .When you think that you are correcting the pupils, they could be seeing things their own way.
The teachers said that canning caused the pupils to develop health complications .Some pupils have been reported to have hypersensitive bodies so that ordinary flogging of the pupils caused very extensive effects on their health. Some of them have been reported with body swelling, fainting and and peeing in their pants, worse of all are the psychological effects.
The teachers also said that the method can’t work for everyone in class .There were those pupils whom canning can work on them but there are other pupils whom canning can harm instead of bringing about the general benefits that are expected for the good of everyone in the class or the entire school .It leaves them feeling very inferior before the others in class and completely destroyed psychologically .Instead of making those pupils to follow the school rules more closely, they start seeing life in a different way, they start shying away from their teachers and seeing not as their teachers and friends anymore but as monsters who enjoy canning you or harming you and who will cane you on site. The corrections that you might think you are trying to make or the school rules that you might be trying to make then to follow isn’t their mind seven.
These experts of ECD told us that while we are working hard to drop canning as a form of action against bad habits and behaviors in schools, but it is going to be hard to drop it totally.
The question is ,how do we punish wrongdoers in class or in school or do we stop this method of punishment altogether and let the teachers to concentrate of teaching the geography, mathematics ,English and the rest of them and leave out discipline? What’s the alternative or do we ban punishment in class for good?