Perception of teachers and students on corporal punishment in secondary schools in Bondo District, Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya, corporal punishment has been a mode of punishment until it was banned by the Ministry of Education in the year 2001. Before its ban, it was being used in nearly all the schools in Bondo District. Reports from Bondo District Education office indicate that corporal punishment is still in use in over 50% of the schools in the district, despite its ban. In more than 50% of the PTA meetings, parents and the school management committees wanted re-introduction of corporal punishment in effecting change in students’ behavior. However, some of the stakeholders felt that corporal punishment was not useful in effecting behavior change among the students. Based on that, this study set out to investigate perception of stakeholders on corporal punishment in secondary schools in Bondo District. The objectives of the study were to: find out the perception of students on corporal punishment, identify the perception of teachers on corporal punishment. This study was guided by a conceptual framework which shows how various stakeholders in Bondo District perceive the use of corporal punishment. Descriptive survey design was adopted in this study. Study population comprised of 1617 form 2 students, 516 teachers, 24 deputy principals and 24 representatives of the B.O.G. Using stratified random sampling technique, 539 form 2 students, 172 teachers, 8 deputy principals and 8 B.O.G. representatives were sampled from 8 schools that were categorized into 2 boys boarding schools, 2 girls boarding schools, 2 mixed day and boarding schools and 2 mixed day schools were sampled for the study. Questionnaires, interview schedules and focus group discussions were used to collect data. Piloting of the instruments was done in four schools that did not participate in the actual study to determine reliability of the instruments. Face validity of the instruments was ascertained by experts in the Department of Educational Psychology, Maseno University. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequency counts. Findings of the study revealed that students do not like the use of corporal punishment while the teachers, Deputy Principals and B.O.G. prefer the use of corporal punishment. The study concluded that students do not perceive corporal punishment as instrumental in effecting behavior change but teachers, Deputy Principals and B.O.G. representatives regard corporal punishment as a useful method of effecting behavior change among students. The study recommended that the Ministry of Education should restructure the policy on corporal punishment to accommodate the views of secondary school stakeholders and also come up with regular workshops to expose teachers to constructive ways of correcting students’ misbehavior.