Canning in schools in Ghana has made many Ghanaians brazen liars or timid, Mama Sewa Fenu III, the Queen of Taviefe, has observed.
“In school they had to lie, if they could, to avoid the strokes of the cane and so they have grown up with it,” she said.
Mama Fenu, an educationalist, was speaking to the GNA on the sidelines of a ceremony to pass out 298 Diploma Nursing Students of the Ho Nurses College, after a training programme in Basic Human Rights.
Mama Fenu, who presided over the function, said the impact of the practice had also made some coy instead of being assertive and probing.
She, therefore, urged the Commission on Human Rights and Administration, (CHRAJ), to work out some formal training to enlighten teacher trainees on basic human rights issues to enable them to relate well with their pupils should they become full time teachers.
Mama Fenu said corporal punishment was dehumanising, leaving psychological scars on sufferers for life, explaining that there were other punishment options to utilise to ensue discipline.
She condemned the practice among teachers and school heads to list canes, as part of the materials to be provided before enrolment or to deliver periodically.
The Ghana Education Service has banned the resort to corporal punishment in schools but some institutions have maintained that they consider it as an indispensable tool in the enforcement of discipline.
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