CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
My heart sunk with agony of a tremendous loss
after reading about the death of Yowana Yakubu of Iganga. Yowana, a nine years old
pupil lost his life at a tender age in the presence of his teacher, Ms Kiwanuka.
The teacher ordered a whipping for the victim by a fellow student over a common
misdemeanor of "talking in class". This reckless cause of death has yet deprived Uganda of
a young life in its infancy. A law against corporal punishment in our school
must inevitably get enacted and named in memory of Yowana Yakubu. The story of Yowana Yakubu (RIP) is not a rare coincidence.
Corporal
punishment has been a feature of Uganda’s education system for many decades.
Like the colonial curriculum that Uganda’s educators can’t overhaul, corporal
punish has already found a life of its own inside that very system.
There was progress being made towards eliminating this vice from
the education system. Research in all aspects of education reveals that beating
a child is not one of the ways of enforcing learning. Usually, terror elicits
survival and rowdy instincts, not learning curiosity and yet the Ugandan
education system remains pegged to the use of such a rudimentary method.
I recall very well that in 1997, the government had put a moratorium
on any forms of corporal punishment in schools. Subsequently, corporal
punishment was abolished completely when UPE policy came into effect. A parent
would have expected that beating students ceased to exist a decade or two ago.
The real challenge is that the quality of teacher’s
education has not changed to reflect new methods of reinforcing discipline other than corporal punishment. Uganda’s
elementary school teachers are some of the most poorly educated in the world. With
certificates and college diplomas, Uganda’s teachers are below their
counterparts in middle income or first world countries in formative years’
education with masters and PhD preparations. Unless a pragmatic approach is adopted to improve on
the standards and quality of our teaching workforce, our schools will remain a
chaotic place in the third world and will not create a vibrant workforce suitable for a first world country.
The life of Yowana Yakubu was a very special one. The lad
had lost his mother and was taken to a village in Iganga, Eastern Uganda, to live with his poor grandmother.
In many ways, Yowana was the consolation item for the grandmother and perhaps,
a reason for the poor lady to have to cope with the loss of the daughter
(mother of Yowana). Now, this teacher decided to make a fatal decision that, even if
unintended to have taken the life of the child, was reckless enough to have
done so.
For the last couple of years, my work in public schools and
the community ensured that I promoted the enforcement of Sabrina’s law here in Toronto.
Sabrina Shannon was an eccentric girl, quite inspirational, warm and kind
hearted toward her peers and the people around her. In 2003, Sabrina died in her first secondary school year. Sabrina’s cause
of death was an anaphylactic reaction triggered by diary
protein which came from cross contamination of tongs used for poutine which made
contact with her fries at the school Canteen.
Sabrina’s death shocked the entire school system and the Province and raised the issue of school safety. Through the deliberate activism of Sabrina’s parents to prevent
other children from meeting such avoidable deaths, the Province of Ontario
adopted the Sabrina’s Law. In 2005, the
Sabrina’s law (Bill 3), also known as “Anaphylactic Law”, was passed into
legislation and it became effective in all schools in Ontario. The law requires
that all schools trains its employees, including janitors and bus drivers,
how to identify anaphylactic situations, respond adequately and where
necessary, administer the epi-pen (epinphylin injection) to save life of the
child. In Ontario, all children with allergies have their epi-pens at hand and their
pictures are displayed in the Principal’s office for monitoring of symptoms. Measures to prevent any
episodes of allergies, such as a ban on all nuts and other known allergens have
been put in place and these rules are monitored frequently.
Given the swift response of the Police to the scene of
Yowana’s death, one would expect that such an awful event could be the tipping
point for Ministry of Education and the government of Uganda to take stern
actions against the ministration of corporal punishment in our schools. I would
propose that anti-corporal punishment law be adopted and named "Yowana Yakubu’s Law" in
memory of the nine years old lad deprived of life at a tender
age.
END
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