The Prime Minister has stressed to the village headmen in Bua that no corporal punishment is allowed in the urban and rural schools in the country.
This is after the Tui Wainunu, Ratu Orisi Baleitavua asked Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama in Bua to consider allowing a section in the proposed village by-laws to allow teachers in village schools to mete out corporal punishment to students.
Ratu Orisi said that nowadays, the young people in the villages do not have respect for their elders, and he revealed that whenever you go to any village in Wainunu, 4 out of 10 girls in every village is pregnant.
He said discipline and corporal punishment is needed.
However Commodore Bainimarama stressed to the people of Bua that education begins from home and it is not the role of the teachers to hand down corporal punishment.
Meanwhile the Education Officer Northern, Peni Saune informed the members of the Bua Provincial Council that corporal punishment is not the only way to teach children.
He added that earlier this week, a teacher was sent to prison for hitting a student while there are two cases before the Labasa courts where teachers have allegedly assaulted students.
The Prime Minister is currently in Cakaudrove and will address the members of the Provincial council this afternoon.
Story by: Vijay Narayan/Paradise Tabucala
