To this end, as the World commemorates the International Day for
Non-Violence, Challenging Heights, a Non-governmental Organization (NGO)
that envisions a world where the rights of every child to education and
a family life are realized, has called on schools and families to
refrain from subjecting children to all forms of violence.
The NGO has also condemned all forms of violence, corporal punishment
in all schools and homes against children.
Challenging Heights and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday, said
every day hundreds of children suffer violence in Ghana.
?And the most common forms of violence against children are child
labour, child trafficking, domestic slavery and an outdated culture of
disciplining children by corporal punishment.?
The statement said there was good evidence showing that inflicting
pain through corporal punishment as a way of disciplining children was a
very weak method for correcting wrong behaviour compared to other
methods.
?Contrarily, existing evidence shows that corporal punishment
leaves emotional and psychosocial scars on victims, reduces mental
development and school performance, and is likely to make children more
violent,? it said.
The statement recalled the case of a 15-year old boy who dropped
out of school and shortly afterwards was trafficked to work as fisher
boy on Lake Volta.
?He dropped out of school due to several beatings he endured at the
hands of teachers, one of which left him partially blind in one eye.
Driven away by violence, the boy spent over two years in child labour,
enduring all forms of abuses at the hands of cruel and greedy
traffickers,? it said.
The statement called on citizens to learn alternative behavioural
management approaches rather than resorting to the primitive use of
inflicting pain as a way of instilling discipline.
Source : GNA/newsghana.com.gh
