Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) in collaboration with the Education Department in Rawalpindi on Thursday conducted a consultative workshop on ‘Trainings on Alternatives to Corporal Punishment: Findings and Follow-up Strategy’.
Mohammad Imtiaz Ahmed and Gulnaz Zahid from SPARC, Executive District Officer (Education) Qazi Zahoor-ul-Haq, DDO Zulfikar Ali Raja Rawalpindi and Safdar Raza from Plan Pakistan were among the key speakers. Participants included the DEOs from Rawalpindi, Gujar Khan, Taxila, Murree, Kallar Sayedan, Kotli Satyan and Kahuta tehsils.
The main objective of the event was to discuss the prevalence of corporal punishment in schools, follow-up findings of trainings conducted to promote alternatives to corporal punishment and to determine further strategy to curb the unfortunate practice. The one-day orientation workshop aimed at sharing the observations from the trainings and to determine the follow-up strategy of those schools, from where the head teachers received trainings under the coordinated efforts between the SPARC and the Education Department.
Qazi Zahoor-ul-Haq mentioned the fact that teachers had not stopped exercising corporal punishment fully, adding that incompetent teachers were involved in the regrettable tradition. He shared the importance of recent notification by the Punjab Education Department. According to him, the Education Department is playing AN active role to curb corporal punishment from schools in co-ordination with the head teachers. Speakers from SPARC stressed the importance of attitudinal change to promote alternatives. Participants of the workshop focused on teacher-parent coordination as one of the most important options.
The DDO shared the positive impact of trainings on alternatives to corporal punishment.
The participants and speakers concluded that further trainings and awareness on the issue was required because there was no justification for exercising corporal punishment to discipline children.
