The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre has condemned the calls made by the Fijian Teachers Association for public consultation on the reintroduction of corporal punishment in schools.
While speaking to fijivillage News, FWCC Coordinator Shamima Ali says there is no research that has been done on bad behaviour from children in schools nowadays.
Ali says a lot of these are rooted in our homes, communities, religious institutions, and the way society at large behaves, which children follow and imitate.
She says there's a lot of bad behaviour from the patriarchal society that we live in, and that is what we need to look at, rather than taking regressive steps like bringing back corporal punishment.
Ali says the respect that children should be showing teachers nowadays is gone because we don't respect each other and even have leaders who make racist and misogynistic comments and behave badly towards each other, particularly men.
She says we have to stop doing that and set an example.
She adds that there are progressive ways of disciplining children that are non-violent and non-harmful, and she further says we all need to undergo sensitization, awareness, and education on child rearing everywhere, in our teachers' colleges, in our homes, and parenting in the community.
When asked for a response to FTA General Paula Manumanunitoga’s comments saying that due to the rise of the gay rights movement, a shift began in favour of human rights, Ali says it is amazing that an educator is talking in this manner. She says this is utterly untrue, not based on any evidence or anything.
We have also sought a response from DIVA for Equality and the Fiji Human Rights Commission on the comments made by Manumanunitoga.
They are yet to respond.
