A survey of elementary and junior high school students around the nation showed a slow but steady trend toward the abolition of corporal punishment in Taiwan's schools, an education organization said yesterday.
Chu Tai-hsiang (朱台翔), chairwoman of the Humanistic Education Foundation, made the remarks at a press conference that was held to publicize the results of a survey held on corporal punishment.
During April and last month, the foundation surveyed 2,779 elementary and junior high school students from around the nation.
The survey covered various aspects of corporal punishment, such as the personal experiences of students and their observations.
visible decline
"More than 52.8 percent of students interviewed this year said they've received some form of corporal punishment, a visible decline from the 2005 number," Chu said.
The foundation conducted a similar survey in that year, in which 64 percent of respondents said they were victims of corporal punishment, Chu said.
This year's survey was performed after a law to ban corporal punishment was passed last year, and the statistics revealed an interesting trend, Chu said.
comparing results
"Comparing the results, we could see a significant decrease in number of cases of a teacher beating a student, however, there's also a significant increase in number of cases of other forms of punishment," Lin Sieh-hwa (林世華), a professor of educational psychology at the National Taiwan Normal University, told the press conference.
According to the results of the survey, student beatings have dropped from 51 percent in 2005 to 27.3 percent this year; while the occurence of the use of fazhan (
Fazhan is a punishment in which the teacher orders a student to stand for a certain period of time.
"This shows that teachers are seeking different ways to keep students disciplined," Lin said.
He interpreted the phenomenon as a positive sign.
"However, as long as the mentality of teachers remains the same, we will have a long way to go," he said.
To reach the goal of zero corporal punishment, participants believed that teachers would need more professional training.
"Many teachers that I've talked to wanted to change after the law was passed, but they don't know how," said Cheng Tung-liao (鄭同僚), a professor of education at National Chengchi University.
opportunity
"Maybe this is an opportunity for teachers to engage in a discussion ? to seek new teaching methods," he said.
Participants suggested the government should also be involved in the process.
"Besides legislation banning corporal punishment, government agencies should also make an effort to inform teachers what can or cannot be done," said Huang Shu-tien (黃旭田), a lawyer.
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