Is Spanking Bad? Corporal Punishment In Homes And Schools Banned in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s High Court banned corporal punishment after a parent filed a complaint about a teacher beating her child, according to media reports Thursday. Under the new ruling, parents and teachers will be prohibited from spanking, hitting or performing any type of corporal punishment on a child.

Linah Pfungwa told High Court members that her six-year-old daughter suffered from deep bruises after being punished by her Belvedere Primary School teacher for failing to have homework signed by her parents. The child’s teacher required students to get their homework signed off by parents in order to prove that the work was completed. After Pfungwa’s daughter failed to have her reading assignment signed, her teacher reportedly assaulted her with a rubber pipe.

Pfungwa took photographs of deep bruises on her daughter’s back and posted them in a WhatsApp group chat for other parents to see, resulting in other parents coming forward with accounts of abuse their children had received by school teachers, court documents said.

“I believe corporal punishment is violence against children and I do not believe that children should be subjected to any form of violence. I further believe that corporal punishment is a physical abuse of children. It amounts to deliberately hurting a child, which causes injuries such as bruises, broken bones, burns or cuts,” Pfungwa said in court documents.

Following the complaint hearing, Justice Daivd Mangota ruled that parents and teachers were no longer able to lay their hands on children if they misbehave.

Previously Section 69(2) (c) of Zimbabwe’s Education Act allowed teachers to enact corporal punishment on students, which Mangota has since declared unconstitutional. The ruling will be passed over to the constitutional court, who will update the Education Act to include the corporal punishment ban.

Zimbabwe’s latest ban makes the country the 52nd country to outlaw corporal punishment following Slovenia, who banned the act in all settings in November 2016, according to the UN Tribune.