Bring back the cane to improve discipline, say parents
Half of parents believe that the cane should be reintroduced to restore order to the classroom, research in Britain in 2011 suggested.
Bring back the cane to
improve pupil discipline, say parents
Some 49 per cent of mothers
and fathers are in favour of corporal punishment to crack down on the worst
offenders, it was revealed.
The vast majority of
parents also want greater use of other back-to-basics discipline measures
including detention, expulsion and forcing badly behaved children to write lines.
Even a fifth of secondary
school pupils themselves support the reintroduction of caning or smacking.
The disclosure comes amid
claims from Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, that “adult authority” has
been eroded in too many schools.
Speaking at a conference on
behaviour in London yesterday, he said: “Even though there are many schools in
which behaviour is great, there are far too many in which it is simply not up
to scratch and, as a result, we have a problem with truancy, with disruption [and]
with exclusion.”
One of the Coalition’s
favourite head teachers also admitted that staff in some schools devoted as
much time to “crowd control” as teaching.
Sir Michael Wilshaw,
principal of Mossbourne Community Academy, Hackney, said: “Without good behaviour
a young and inexperienced teacher can become vulnerable to the bullies in the
classroom and leave the profession.
“Something like one-in-four
newly-qualified teachers leave the profession in the first few years. That is a
tragic loss of talent.”
Corporal punishment was
banned in state schools in 1986.
Some independent schools
continued to mete out physical punishment, such as a slap to the hands or
ordering press-ups, until it was outlawed 10 years later.
But a survey of 2,000
parents and 530 children by the Times Educational Supplement has found
strong support for the reintroduction of smacking or caning to discipline the
most badly behaved pupils.
Some 49 per cent of parents
and 19 per cent of secondary school pupils supported the move.
More than three-quarters of
parents also backed the use of after-school detention, suspension and expulsion
and writing lines to punish bad behaviour. Some 55 per cent even said teachers
should make more use of shouting to put children in their place.
The YouGov research found
that 85 per cent of parents believed teachers were now less respected than when
they were at school and 83 per cent said they faced stricter classroom
discipline as children.
But the Department for
Education rejected calls to bring back the cane.
Last night, a spokesman
insisted that other measures – including additional powers to physically
restrain the most violent children and search those suspected of carrying
banned items – would improve standards of behaviour.
“There is no intention of
ever reintroducing corporal punishment,” he said. “Parents are right to demand
that their children learn in a safe and ordered environment – that’s why we are
toughening up teachers’ disciplinary powers and restoring their authority.”
Chris Keates, general
secretary of the NASUWT union, said: “A mythology has grown up around corporal
punishment and its effectiveness which was never borne out by reality.
“A study of inspection
reports from the 50s and 60s highlighted behaviour that would not be tolerated
today, such as vandalising school property or assaulting teachers.
"These were common
features of life in many schools in years gone by despite the routine use of
corporal punishment.
“In fact, evidence suggests
that behaviour has improved significantly since corporal punishment was
abolished."
As published in
the Daily
Telegraph, 16 September 2011
Picture credit: Getty
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