The united republic of tanzania

5.7 Corporal Punishment

81. Taking into account its General Comment No. 1 on the aims of education (CRC/GC/2001/1) and General Comment No. 8 on the right of the child to protection from corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment (CRC/GC/2006/8), the Committee urged the State party:

(a) To explicitly prohibit all forms of corporal punishment in the family, schools, the penal system and other institutional settings and alternative-care systems, as a matter of priority;

(b) To sensitize and educate parents, guardians and professionals working with and for children, by carrying out public educational campaigns about the harmful impact of corporal punishment; and

(c) To promote positive, non-violent forms of discipline as an alternative to corporal punishment.

82. The State Party recognises and has constitutionalised a person’s right to dignity.¹⁴⁰ On the basis of this constitutional guarantee, the State Party has enacted, in section 13(1) of the Law of the Child Act and in section 14(1) of the Zanzibar Children’s Act, provisions prohibiting subjecting a child ‘to torture, or other cruel, inhuman punishment or degrading treatment¹⁴¹ including any cultural practice which dehumanizes or is injurious to the physical and mental well-being of a child.’ Based on the justified cultural practices in the State Party, subsection (2) of section 14 of the Zanzibar Children’s Act allows parents to discipline their children ‘in such a manner which shall not amount to injury to the child’s physical and mental well-being.’ In terms of subsection (2) of section 13 of the Law of the Child Act: ‘No correction of a child is justifiable which is unreasonable in kind or in degree according to the age, physical and mental condition of the child and no correction is justifiable if the child is by reason of tender age or otherwise incapable of understanding the purpose of the correction.’

83. Basing on the foregoing provisions, the State Party deems justifiable the application of caning of unruly students in schools as falling outside the scope of corporal punishment; and it has regulated the application of the punishment in schools in order for it not to amount to degrading or inhuman treatment of misbehaving pupils in schools. Corporal punishment remains lawful in schools in Tanzania Mainland by virtue of provisions of the Education (Corporal Punishment) Regulations (1979)¹⁴² made pursuant to section 60 of the Education Act (1978)¹⁴³, which authorises the minister to make regulations “to provide for and control the administration of corporal punishment in schools”. Under these Regulations, "corporal punishment" means ‘punishment by striking a pupil on his hand or on his normally clothed buttocks with a light, flexible stick but excludes striking a child with any other instrument or on any other part of the body.’

84. According to Regulation 3(1) of the Education (Corporal Punishment) Regulations, corporal punishment ‘may be administered for serious breaches of school discipline or for grave offences committed whether inside or outside the school which are deemed by the school authority to have brought or are capable of bringing the school into disrepute.’ In this context, paragraph (2) of Regulation 3 requires corporal punishment to ‘be reasonable having regard to the gravity of the offence, age, sex and health of the pupils and shall not exceed four strokes on any occasion.’ In order to check any possible abuse of corporal punishment, as a disciplinary against truant pupils in schools, the State Party has ensured, through Regulation 4(1) of these Regulations, that the head of school should have the discretion to administer corporal punishment. Where the head of school wishes to delegate this duty to another teacher, such delegation must be ‘in writing to a carefully selected member of his teaching staff provided that the authorised member of staff may act only with the approval of the head of the school on each occasion when corporal punishment is administered.’

85. Another safeguard the State Party has enacted in paragraph (2) of Regulation of Education (Corporal Punishment) Regulations is the mandatory requirement that a female pupil may only receive corporal punishment from a female teacher; except where there is no female teacher at the school in which case the head of school may himself administer corporal punishment or authorise in writing a male teacher to administer corporal punishment. A further safeguard is enacted in Regulation 5(1), which provides that: ‘On every occasion when corporal punishment is administered it shall be recorded in writing in a book kept for this purpose and such record shall state in each instance the name of the pupil, the offence or breach of discipline, the number of strokes and the name of the teacher who administered the punishment.’ Under subsection (2) of this Regulation: ‘Every entry in the book shall be made and signed by the head of the school.’

Where the administration of corporal punishment is violated, the State Party has made mandatory for taking disciplinary action against a head of school or school authority under the Teachers Service Commission Act (1989).¹⁴⁴

86. In Zanzibar, the Ministry of Education has adopted a policy against corporal punishment in schools, but it remains lawful under the 1982 Education Act. The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training in collaboration with Save the Children established programme named “Promoting Alternative forms of Discipline in Schools in Zanzibar”. The project established in 2010 working with 10 pilot schools in Unguja and Pemba (1 school per district). Its main aim is to ensure that corporal punishment is banned in schools by sensitizing teachers as well as parents to use alternative forms of discipline instead of corporal punishment. All public primary schools in Zanzibar have now at least one teacher who has been trained on the use of alternative forms of discipline.