By Zena Henry

THE re-examination of corporal punishment and the regulation of after-school lessons are among the many issues that the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the state of the education system is looking to address.
These matters were given the spotlight when CoI Chairman Ed Caesar handed over the preliminary CoI report to Education Minister Dr Rupert Roopnaraine last week.
Caesar said teachers are of the view that if corporal punishment is totally taken away from them, indiscipline would prevail, pointing out that some parents are supportive of this form of discipline.
Corporal punishment has been a hot topic in schools. Some have called the disciplinary measure archaic and inhumane, while others have urged the maintenance of such forms of discipline, providing cultural and religious evidence in support of their beliefs.
President David Granger had called for the abolition of corporal punishment in schools here, describing the biblical quote “Spare the rod and spoil the child” as “backward.”
The President said parents should use non-physical means to keep their children disciplined; pointing out that it will help them to handle testing situations in a non-violent way.
According to Caesar, other forms of discipline are almost non-existent, given the number of activities students are involved in nowadays.
One of those, he said, is after-school lessons. Caesar said in the earlier school days, children were disciplined with detention, where they wrote lines or performed some service to the school.
Today, he related, everyone goes to lessons.
He said when children are to be disciplined in that manner, the excuse is that the child must go to lessons.
The CoI Chairman charged that lessons cannot infringe on what must happen during the day. Speaking to both teachers and students, Caesar indicated that a student who takes lessons must fulfil his normal class duties and activities provided by the teacher, while a teacher giving after-school lessons cannot limit or cause their after-school class to hamper their normal tasks.
Caesar pointed out that one of his commissioners has so far suggested that lessons be controlled.
“We have to regulate lessons, we have to give licence for after-school lessons…,” he said, pointing out that the process should be set in such a way as not to infringe on regular classes.
There have also been reports of teachers deliberately not teaching the full syllabus in school, choosing to do so in full at their extra lessons classes.
Minister Roopnaraine said it is appalling when teachers who are supposed to give their full commitment in the classroom, give their full commitment at “some bottom house.”