Child rights group appalled at ‘normalised’ corporal punishment at schools

The report found that corporal punishment is still prevalent even though it was banned in schools more than 20 years ago. 

It says over one million children between the ages of five and 17 years experienced some form of violence at learning institutions in 2019. 

The investigation found that 84% of pupils experienced corporal punishment at the hands of their teachers. 

Almost 14 percent of them were subjected to verbal abuse and nearly 11 percent witnessed physical violence. 

The report says between 2009 and 2019, the percentage of children who experienced verbal abuse by other learners increased by six percent.

Lucy Jamieson, a senior researcher at the Children's Institute, says they have been campaigning against this type of punishment for years. 

"These statistics confirm that violence is widely tolerated. 

"It shows that millions of children are experiencing corporal punishment, yet we also see that the body responsible for maintaining standards for the teachers, the South African Council for Educators, which is where you would send a complaint if a child had experienced corporal punishment, they received less than 200 complaints a year. So it's really been normalised." 

Jamieson says corporal punishment is detrimental to children. 

"In addition to direct physical consequences, by the way, some of which are very severe - children are still beaten with pipes, many of them have got severe injuries or are in hospital, so in addition to those physical consequences, corporal punishment affects their ability to learn. 

"It affects their relationship with their teacher and worst of all, the lesson that children learn is that violence is acceptable."