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RESEARCH AND CHILDREN:Ethiopia |
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Treat us as people! Hear what we say! We want respect!
In 1998 Rädda Barnen published the report of a survey on attitudes towards physical punishment among Ethiopian students, parents and teachers. The use of physical punishment in Ethiopia is widespread but documentation on views of child rearing and attitudes towards physical punishment of children is scarce. Rädda Barnen, which has been working on the issue of physical punishment of children for many years in Sweden and since 1994 in Ethiopia, wanted to increase knowledge of the use of and attitudes towards physical punishment in Ethiopia.
This extract from the report (edited by Per Tamm, then East Africa Representative of Rädda Barnen), summarises discussions with randomly selected children from an elementary school and junior high school:
Why bad behaviour?
Children identified three family-based factors that lead to bad behaviour: loss of control, separation from parents and failure of the family to satisfy their basic needs. Other causes revealed were exposure to violent Western movies, improper punishment and lack of proper time planning for study, play, and recreation, etc. In a group discussion with parents it came up that about eight teenagers committed suicide by eating poison in their neighbourhood. The cause of the suicide can be attributed to many factors like lack of employment, poverty, etc. but these children had according to the group all been victims of unjust physical punishment by their parents.
During the group discussions with children they also reported that they were required to always confirm blindly to adult’s ideas, thoughts and wishes and act according to their demand. They have to obey elders without raising questions. The response obtained from elementary students also confirmed this. When the children were asked to define what was "bad behaviour" they identified eight bad behaviours of which six were related to lack of respect for elders and parents. This shows that the parents have an absolute authority over children and bad behaviour is defined as going against the parental authority.
Why use physical punishment ?
This same group also discussed and identified types of punishments that they considered proper: advice, knocking, slapping, pinching and whipping. But, if the child is found to be vulgar, they said, it is good to tie and beat him-up; if he/she is found stealing, it is proper to burn the fingers. Interestingly enough, this suggestion was well taken and appreciated by all members of the group with no opposition.The children also concluded that at least one third of the punishment applied on the children in table 2 deserved it. This obviously indicates that we are rearing violent future men and women who are brought up under conditions that will make them prescribe violence as a desirable disciplinary measure.
A secondary school student remarked during the data collection as follows:
I am a human being and naturally make a mistake. Humans do not always follow rules. So it is necessary to use the whip when they don’t obey rules. I believe that parents have the right to physically punish their children. I (also) believe that if the teacher teaches well and is able to get the attention of the students there is no reason for conflict. However, a student could sometimes deliberately create a condition for being physically punished . In such cases he/she has to be physically punished
But at the same time did the girls and boys of this study, except the smaller children have knowledge of the negative effects of punishments? During the focus group discussion with young girls of age 13-14 years they listed the following effects of physical punishment:
- disturbed personality
- physical injury
- death
- runaway/streetism
- suicide/due to fear of punishment
The same group of girls forwarded the following alternative approaches towards solving the problem.
- parents should use different approaches when advising and educating their children.
- schools should patiently educate code of conduct rather than using physical violence.
- create a dialogue with children before applying punishment
- initiate and expand play and recreational facilities, different clubs like drama sports, music clubs, etc.
- initiate and assist students’ which run campaigns against excessive physical punishment, through jointly working with teachers and family.
By and large children, particularly the older ones bitterly voiced against severe physical punishments inflicted on them both by parents and teachers for simple reasons, although they couldn’t rule out the use of physical punishment for offences which they thought were very serious. To this effect, they asked for the initiation of a joint forum of discussion with parents and teachers to avert such unwanted measures.
Spare the rod and spoil the child — a survey of attitudes towards physical punishment among Ethiopian students, parents and teachers, Rädda Barnen, Swedish Save the Children, East Africa Regional Office, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, May 1998