Ghanaian actress and educational entrepreneur Yvonne Nelson has spoken against corporal punishment in schools, calling for a shift toward more compassionate and constructive methods of discipline.
In a candid conversation on The Career Trail with Irene Adubea Aning, Nelson passionately shared why she believed no child should ever be subjected to physical punishment by teachers.
Drawing from her own experience in running a school, she explained how understanding, patience, and open communication are far more effective tools for addressing misbehavior than fear-driven tactics like caning.
“No one has the right to touch anyone’s kid. We do not do any of that here. If we realize that a child is being too much or they are misbehaving, we have measures, we have things we do. You can give them time out. Sometimes they just want to walk around, even go to the play area. They are going through something. Just give them some middle space. We counsel, we talk to them. The last resort is basically picking up the phone to call their parents. Sometimes we feel that when parents talk to their kids, you know, it works well,” she said.
She acknowledges the proverb “spare the rod and spoil the child,” but clarifies that it applies to parents at home, not teachers at school.
According to Yvonne, parents have every right to discipline their children at home, but schools should never resort to corporal punishment, even if parents give permission.
“Spare the rod and spoil the child is for parents. You can discipline your child at home. You can let them raise their hands, face the wall and all that. But the school has no right. No one should do that. No one should touch anyone’s kid. Even when the parents tell you to discipline the child, who are you to touch anyone’s child. You leave that to the parents,” she indicated.
She stressed that fear-based discipline, like caning, only harms children and impedes their academic progress. Reflecting on her own school days, Nelson shared how she was often too scared to attend classes, knowing that teachers might cane her, which affected her performance.
“There were days you were afraid to go to the class because one teacher is going to beat everybody in the class. That wasn’t helping,” she added.
“At a point when we were writing our SSCE, I did not go in when we were writing Costing and Accounting. It was that bad. What was I going to write? I didn’t like it. Our teacher was always beating us up and I was always skipping classes. What was I going to write? I cannot balance the sheet,” she revealed.
Yvonne Nelson believes that caning creates unnecessary fear, negatively impacting children’s ability to learn and thrive. In her words: “No one should touch anyone’s child.”
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