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Calls mount for end to corporal punishment in schools

"Students are often forced to do strenuous exercise as punishment just because they forgot to bring scissors to school."

Kim Wang, from the Humanistic Education Foundation

The 33-year-old teacher beat the student 10 times on the hand with a long, heavy stick and then, after catching her breath, whacked the teen's bottom in front of his classmates in a high school in Taichung.

The boy's offense? Failing to pass in his homework in on time.

The National Alliance of Parents Association and the Humanistic Education Foundation (HEF), the nation's unofficial education watchdog, has long sought to ban corporal punishment in schools to protect students from what they describe as physical and mental torture.

Video footage of the beating described above, caught on a mobile phone camera by a fellow student and aired on television last month, has helped galvanize politicians into introducing legislation that would create an outright ban.

Kuan Pi-ling (管碧玲), a legislator from the governing Democratic Progressive Party, has introduced an amendment to the Fundamental Law on Education (教育基本法) that would force all teachers to stop beating schoolchildren by next year.

"The law has a fundamental function which declares the value that children and students have equal human rights as adults," she said.

"Of course, more should be done to make lasting changes in people's attitudes and behavior, and this comes back to why legislation is extremely important -- it gets more things done," she added.

The campaign, spearheaded by the HEF in Taipei, has also been given a boost with the high-profile backing of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Prime Minister Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).

It comes at a time when incidents of physical and mental abuse are rife.

A poll of 3,000 junior and primary school children revealed that 65 percent admitted to receiving some form of physical punishment during school in the last year.

The results, though, did show a slight drop in reported cases compared with the year before, when more than 72 percent of students said they had experienced some form of corporal punishment.

Despite the fall, the abuse continues in many schools.

Students suffered beatings with sticks, bamboo canes and even whips, while others suffered mental torment, such as standing in front of the class for long periods and having to perform push-ups in front of classmates.

Groups that support the ban want to follow in the footsteps of other countries -- such as Germany and Sweden -- by outlawing corporal punishment in schools and finding alternative methods of disciplining children.

But the decades-old practice has been used throughout the nation as a means of forcing students to be obedient, with many schools operating like personal fiefdoms using fear and manipulation to force students to perform well in exams, to ensure the school maintains a high grade average.

"Outstanding academic performance is highly regarded. Therefore, many students are recipients of corporal punishment when their scores fail to meet teachers' standards," said HEF's Kim Wang. "But students are often forced to do strenuous exercise as punishment just because they forgot to bring scissors to school."

In fact, the foundation says the majority of schools widely flout government guidelines that request schools to stop using physical punishment.

Some schools even force children to sign agreements that give teachers permission to use corporal punishment, but parents fail to speak out.

"The problem is that parents are too scared to complain because they are concerned that teachers will simply neglect their children's educational needs," said Tiffany Wang, the mother of 16-year-old Taipei student.

The campaign will continue to face resistance from teachers who say that it requires a wholesale cultural change over a long period of time.

"Corporate punishment is not a moral issue, it is a cultural one," said Chang Hui-shan, principal of Dongguan Elementary School in Kaohsiung. "Teachers in Taiwan are not ready for such a change yet."
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