Headmasters' meet planned to check corporal punishments

In an effort to check incidences of corporal punishments in schools, which have been on the rise lately, the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has planned to convene a meeting of the headmasters of private schools in the City in January.

According to commission member Edward Thomas, the assistance of various block education officers will be requisitioned to bring the headmasters together. The National Law School will be vested with the responsibility of framing a child protection policy model.

This would include various protocols and the dos and don’t on corporal punishment which will be adopted by the schools.

Initially, the plan will cover schools in Bangalore and subsequently extended to districts with the help of various district directors of public instruction and the district child protection offices.

Incidentally, a few private schools in the City are conducting counselling sessions on corporal punishment under the guidance of Nagasimha Rao, of Child Rights Trust, an NGO. However, Department of Public Instruction Commissioner Umashankar, opined that passing an order and law against corporal punishment, was, in itself, a big step.

“We are trying to put the topic of corporal punishment into the curriculum. Counselling sessions can be done for five schools in their private capacities but not for 55,000 government schools” he added.