This article is in response to the Joy FM documentary on corporal punishment on Thursday 27th June 2013. It is a laudable deed on the part of the multimedia group and Joy Fm in particular to broadcast such a programme and taking that extra step to shed light on the very real problems that plague our Ghanaian society. This time, the matter is on the necessity of corporal punishment and having listened to the documentary, we are convinced that the issue goes to the core of our educational system. As concerned law students from the KNUST Law Faculty, we are writing this article to add our voice to the cry for creative and effective means of discipline in Ghanaian schools. Corporal punishment as we understand it is the infliction of physical injury on another for committing a crime; in this case breaching school rules. Immediately, one cannot help but agree that the mention of ‘physical injury’ is indeed alarming and a cause for concern. The Akuse incident reported by Joy News on May 16th 2013 brings to bare these concerns. A 17 year old girl was beaten to the point of grievous bodily injury and another girl, who featured on the documentary, has issues with her eyesight thanks to the beating she received in school. These are only two isolated examples of the abuses that children suffer in Ghanaian schools. This documentary painted the picture only too well when it highlighted the effects of such brutal punishments, for instance, the reactive nature of Africans in general, the timidity and lack of confidence in Ghanaian children and to some extent even in adults. Sadly enough, the biblical quote “spare the rod and spoil the child” is the mantra for such abuses. In recognising the role of school authorities to act in the best interest of their students (discipline inclusive), we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that the actions of these school authorities must not vitiate the fundamental human rights of children in our schools. Mr. Paul Krampah, the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, informs us (in the Joy News Report on the Akuse incident) that the Ghana Education Service (GES) allows for some form of corporal punishment and that only head teachers are allowed to flog students. Clearly this provision has failed woefully to protect school children from physical abuse. Even the Criminal Code of Ghana seems to support corporal punishment in section 31(I) which provides that the use of force on the authority to correct a child is justified. Is this to say that teachers who abuse children are covered by the authority of section 31? The general and broad nature of the section is also a very serious issue of concern that Ghanaian law makers must rectify. ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’ begs the question; must the rod always be a cane or in extreme cases leather belts or electric wires? The biblical quote like many others in the Bible is not to be taken literally. The meaning of this “rod” in our opinion is metaphorical and to that extent punishment meted out to students should not be by the cane but by other creative and efficient means that will be suggested in this article. Beating children till they suffer bruises is not in their best interest neither is instilling a sense of timidity that prevents children from going to school in their best interest. However, discipline is a prime concern for a nation such as ours and recalcitrant children must be put on the “straight and narrow”. As a nation we have tried beating our children with canes and the fruits thereof are sour grapes in our mouths, so why don’t we try something else? Punishment among other things is a state of mind that thrives on the temporal deprivation of privileges because of our wrongful actions and as such there is an abundance of options in order to achieve the goal of punishment. A simple case in point is where children in nurseries are put in a “naughty box”: where they are put in a box that restricts their movements while their friends play around. Under such circumstances no physical harm is suffered by these children but they feel punished because they cannot have playtime; No bruises but effective behavioural discipline. So why beat children in class 3 with a cane when on the other side of the same “rod” you could detain them during recess or break time. Making children sit in the class while they read books or solve questions is equally an effective punishment because in their mind, you are taking away their break time and making them work distasteful mathematics. The benefits of such alternative punishments are clear; while the child is being punished they are actually improving on their intellectual capabilities. That a class 2 pupil of Asamakama Primary School, Offinso, should be caned to the point of getting his hand swollen and rotting is not only unfortunate but gruesome. That should not be the price a tender boy should pay for basic education. For more mature students whom a naughty box or detention would not suffice, we propose a possible system of community service for older children. They can stay an hour or two after school to de-silt choked gutters, sweep or clear weedy areas or even plant trees; whichever is most appropriate. In some instances, some students could be required to write research papers into areas concerning their wrongs. Evidently such punishment is desirable in our schools considering that the student, the school and the community would benefit unlike flogging that only amounts to teachers straining their backs and students receiving an equal share in the bruises that these strokes produce. We applaud and further encourage the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and other NGOs in their quest to have corporal punishment abolished. Their laudable argument is that caning amounts to torture because it infringes on the inviolable right of human dignity protected by article 15 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana; Section 13 of the Children Act, 1998 (Act 560) provides among other things that no person shall subject a child to punishment that is dehumanising and injurious to the physical and mental well being of the child. Thus it may be said that these poor children who have suffered various injuries as a result of excessive caning are victims of torture and that their inviolable rights under the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and the Children’s Act have been violated. To the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education we pray that corporal punishment be abolished and that legislative and administrative measure be put in place to control the abuses suffered by these children and to provide a means where teachers who take to perpetuating inhuman brutalities be brought to book. Children that make such reports should be protected, investigations should be made, effective punishments meted out and a working system set up to oversee the whole process. We can even draw inspiration from other nations. In India for example, the high court abolished corporal punishment in many schools in the year 2000 and in 17 out of 28 states enforcement mechanisms, although lax, have been put in place to apply the ban. Furthermore, a number of social and cultural organisations like the shankracharya are campaigning against corporal punishment in India. The question is why not Ghana? We cannot afford to spare words on this topical issue however, in a nutshell, corporal punishment is one way to go about discipline but its attendant abuses are so glaring that they cannot be ignored. The alternate measures of discipline in our school ought to be adopted, its benefits are quite promising and it will inure to the benefit of Ghana if the future of our human resource (children) is not driven out of school by the “rod” that straightens them. Asare Paa Kwame Larbi Anane-Asante Owusu Yaw Boakye Docia Chrappah Akua Tindana Yinsongti