Is corporal punishment acceptable in Chinese schools? Government edict reopens debate
- Guangdong province leads move to clarify what is allowed with draft rule legalising some commonly used sanctions
- Forced standing and running could be permitted as parents and teachers debate where to draw the line
Seven-year-old Haohao changed primary school this summer after spending his first year being taught by a teacher who his father believed had a propensity for violence.
Haohao was often pinched on the face or leg for failing to finish his homework on time or talking in class at Kaixuan Primary School in Linyi county, in eastern China’s Shandong province, according to his father Zhang Zhaobao.
“I’m OK with some minor punishment as a warning to my son, but this was too much, and she didn’t communicate with us in advance,” Zhang said, referring to Haohao’s head teacher, whom he declined to name.
It is an issue provoking fresh debate. There is no law in China specifying what constitutes corporal punishment or how it should be supervised – only directives from the education ministry and local education departments.
However, lawmakers in the southern Guangdong province, prompted by a central government directive, are considering a draft regulation to legalise some commonly used measures.