Meeting discusses abolition of corporal punishment in educational institutions

Islamabad: To abolish and completely eradicate corporal punishment in educational institutions, a meeting was convened on Thursday by inviting relevant stakeholders at the Pakistan Manpower Institute Building.

Secretary, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training chaired the meeting. According to the Education Ministry, the chair explained that it was our prime responsibility to ensure protection of children rights in educational settings and that included absolute ending of Corporal punishment. The deliberations of meeting included strategising effective execution of corporal punishment Act and ensuring that every child was being protected and heard, it added.

The actions in this regard will include immediate awareness raising campaigns, a baseline survey for auditing the extant and frequency of corporal punishment, workshops for students, teachers, parents and community, display of a sealed compliant box in all educational institutions, notification of disciplinary committees in each school and an exclusive director in each directorate. Furthermore, setting up of a hotline for students and parents to report any such incident confidentially was also included in the proposed actions.