The Ministry of Education has called upon all stakeholders and key players in the education sector to ensure that corporal punishment is not administered in Malawian educational institutions in any way.

The Ministry made the call through a statement signed by Secretary for Education, Chikondano Mussa, following the circulation of a video clip on social media purportedly from Mwitiya Primary School in Machinga in which a teacher is whipping a learner mercilessly with a rod in a classroom.

Mussa however dismissed the reports saying the clip is not from Malawi as there is no school in the country by such name.

Reads part of the statement: “Be that as it may, the ministry has taken this opportunity to remind all school proprietors, head teachers, principals, teachers, support staff, parents, guardians and all stakeholders that corporal punishment is not allowed in schools, whether public or private.”

“Children are entitled to be protected from any treatment that is, or is likely to, be hazardous; interfere with their education; or be harmful to their health or to their physical, mental or spiritual or social development,” reads the report.

Research among other things has shown that corporal punishment leads to dropout of learners from school which is contrary to Ministry’s strategic priority of increasing equitable access to primary education by all school age children in Malawi.