Decades ago corporal punishment in schools wasn’t just allowed it was recommended and applauded by many respected voices.

Some older Jamaicans readily recall going home to complain that they had been beaten at school, only to get another whipping.

“If teacher beat yuh a mus’ supn yuh do wrong,” or words to that effect would be the explanation.

To be fair, there was also pushback. Some caregivers weren’t averse to visiting school the next day angrily protesting because their child had come home with bruises after being beaten by “teacha”.

Believe it or not, in times long gone, the odd fight did occur on very rare occasions between home-based caregivers and teachers.

We believe it’s a good thing that in today’s Jamaica corporal punishment is frowned upon by the authorities, including Government and associations representing educators.

Occasionally, in recent years, individual educators and caregivers have gone before the courts on assault charges (under the Offences Against the Person Act) after hitting children.

Even with that, occasionally we still hear allegations of children being physically assaulted or otherwise abused by educators such as in our latest Sunday edition.

We await results of probes being conducted by the authorities, including the Ministry of Education and Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA).

What’s certainly not in question is that Jamaica is signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which specifically rejects physical and other forms of abuse of children, be it at school, home or anywhere else.

Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO) says, “Evidence shows corporal punishment harms children’s physical and mental health, increases behavioural problems over time, and has no positive outcomes.”

Local experts have also said the tendency to resort to violence as a first resort during disputes is linked to the practice of beating children for misdeeds, real and imagined.

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness is among those who have vehemently spoken out against corporal punishment, dating back to when he was Education Minister 15 years ago. He has repeatedly pointed to the need for legislation to comprehensively ban the practice.

In 2021, following the death of a four year-old who was allegedly beaten by his stepfather for supposedly eating too slowly, Dr Holness told Parliament that, “We, as a society, must ban corporal punishment.”

Yet, as our reporter reminded us on Sunday, corporal punishment is still “not completely banned in Jamaica. The Government has instead been working with various organisations to promote less harmful disciplinary actions and positive parenting practices”.

Lest we forget, there are deep cultural and religious belief systems grounded largely in the age-old dictum that adults must not “spare the rod and spoil the child”, which continue to nurture faith in corporal punishment especially at home.

Hopefully with public education, including formal and informal parental training, that attitude will change in the not too distant future.

Meanwhile, we believe there is urgent need for preventive legislation starting with schools, places of safety, and so forth.

We agree with head of the National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica Mr Stewart Jacobs that, in this new parliamentary year, the matter should be put “front and centre” by our legislators.