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Discipline is generally maintained across all types of schools. The limits are clear. They are challenged, in the way one expects young people to chafe against authority, but ultimately, order is easily achieved with little recourse to draconian measures.
Corporal punishment - pupils being hit with a cane, slipper or ruler - is one of the chief sanctions, either as a threat or actually being carried out. In 1970, the anti-caning pressure group STOPP claims that state schools, taken as a whole, are inflicting 'more than 1,000 beatings in each school day'. Such punishment is even more prevalent in private schools. It is, however, uncommon for girls to be beaten.
Corporal punishment gives added ammunition to the occasional teacher who delights in terrifying and humiliating children. This statutory 'hard man' is usually tolerated by school authorities.
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Corporal punishment was outlawed in state schools in 1986 and in private schools in 1998.
Discipline is now education's biggest problem and greatest challenge. The daily routine of varying degrees of rude, challenging and disruptive behaviour in today's schools is undermining and often defeating the best efforts of many hard-working and dedicated teachers.
An enormous amount of work, thought and imagination is being brought to bear on this problem. The efforts of pastoral staff to persuade difficult pupils not to throw away their life chances are heroic. But they often feel that they are running to stand still, which may be symptomatic of a deeper malaise.
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