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According to him, canning does not constitute abuse when it is aimed at correcting students from wrongdoing.
“Change for the sake of change does not do anybody any good. I don’t think that in those days when the people were being caned, they were being abused; because there were rules and regulations within which people had to be caned; and the GES must be careful and not just give a blanket instruction.
“I don’t know what pertains now, but in an older document for teachers when teachers used to cane, there were specific rules on canning; the caning was commensurate to the offense,” the Methodist Bishop told Accra-based Citi FM.
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Rt. Rev. Samuel K. Osabutey
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The GES has taken a strong stance against canning in schools, describing the act as a “corporal punishment”.
In a recent statement signed by its Deputy Director General, Anthony Boateng, the GES ordered teachers in primary and secondary schools to immediately adopt a new disciplinary toolkit.
The statement said, rather than cane students, teachers must find alternate sanctions as measures for correcting them.
However, Rt. Rev. Osabutey believes a ban on canning is tantamount to “weakening the hands of the teachers who are supposed to apply discipline.”
“Discipline is not only about canning; I agree. But it is also one of the things that at least; puts some kind of fear of God, let me put it that way; in the life of students. Yes; I agree that some teachers can abuse it; and those teachers must be punished; so the GES should not say that there should be no canning at all,” he stated.
“Now what other disciplinary measures are we supposed to take? All of us are looking for better ways of making sure that the child’s character is formed. I agree that canning is not the only means of discipline; but at the same time, whiles we’re reviewing that, we should find alternatives that will ensure that the teachers are empowered to exercise discipline, and I don’t see that.”
The Methodist Bishop added that children are getting away with some bad behavours all in the name of freedom.
He warned that if this is not checked, many Ghanaian children will go wayward.
“Children are getting away with a lot of things in the schools in the name of child abuse; and people are talking about human rights. In other jurisdictions like the US and elsewhere where we find out that children have been given the freedom even to carry guns and things like that; and they’re able to challenge their parents and things like that; it’s a foolish behaviour pattern which we have copied with the excuse of freedom of speech; freedom of liberty for the student; the student must not be coerced and all that…,” Rt. Rev. Osabutey lamented.
“…But they know that traditional America was not like that. If you trace how these children have become undisciplined and can even shoot in the so-called American schools, you realize that the real cause is a breakdown in discipline from the child. So a child is now able to send the mother to court for disciplining the child at home; he can cause the arrest of his teacher for canning him; so now the teachers are afraid even of the children. So the way we’re going about relaxing discipline in the schools; one day we will wake up and our children will kill all of us.”