School corporal punishment

School corporal punishment refers to causing deliberate pain or discomfort in response to undesired behaviour by students in schools. It often involves striking the student either across the buttocks or on the hands, with an implement such as a rattan cane, wooden paddle, slipper, leather strap or wooden yardstick. Less commonly, it could also include spanking or smacking the student with the open hand, especially at the elementary school level.

In the English-speaking world, the use by schools of corporal punishment has historically been justified by the common-law doctrine in loco parentis, whereby teachers are considered authority figures granted the same rights as parents to punish children in their care.

Advocates of school corporal punishment argue that it provides an immediate response to indiscipline and that the student is quickly back in the classroom learning, as opposed to suspension from school. Opponents, including a number of medical and psychological societies, along with human-rights groups, argue that physical punishment is ineffective in the long term, interferes with learning, leads to antisocial behaviour as well as various forms of mental distress, and is a form of violence that breaches the rights of children.

Poland in 1783 was the first nation to outlaw corporal punishment in schools. School corporal punishment is no longer practised in any European country. As of 2015, most developed countries have abolished the practice, with the exception of some parts of the United States, some Australian states, and Singapore. It is still in common use in a number of countries in Africa and Asia. It was banned in state funded schools, throughout the United Kingdom, in 1986. It was banned in UK Public and private schools, that received no state funding, in 1999 for England and Wales, 2000 in Scotland, and 2003 in Northern Ireland.

Corporal punishment in the context of schools in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has been variously defined as: causing deliberate pain to a child in response to the child's undesired behaviour and/or language, "purposeful infliction of bodily pain or discomfort by an official in the educational system upon a student as a penalty for unacceptable behavior", and "intentional application of physical pain as a means of changing behavior" (not the occasional use of physical restraint to protect student or others from immediate harm).

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