FWCC condemns FTA’s call for corporal punishment

The Fiji Women’s Crisis Center has condemned the Fijian Teachers Association’s call for public consultation on the reintroduction of corporal punishment in schools. Speaking to fijivillage News, FWCC Coordinator Shamima Ali said that there has been no research on bad behavior of children in schools today. Ali says many of these are rooted in our homes, communities, religious institutions and the way society as a whole behaves, which children follow and imitate. She says there is a lot of bad behavior in the patriarchal society we live in, and that is what we need to look at, rather than taking regressive steps such as reducing corporal punishment.

Ali says that the respect that children should show to teachers today has disappeared because we do not respect each other and even have leaders who make racist and misogynistic comments and behave badly towards each other, especially men. She says we should 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 that we all need to undergo sensitization, awareness and education on raising children everywhere, in our teachers’ schools, with our at home, and parenting in the community. When asked for a response to FTA General Paula Manumanunitoga’s comments in which he said a shift in favor of human rights had begun with the rise of the gay rights movement, Ali says it is astonishing that an educator at this way to talk. She says this is completely untrue and not based on any evidence or anything.

We have also requested a response from DIVA for Equality and the Fiji Human Rights Commission on Manumanunitoga’s comments. They have yet to respond.