'Introduce corporal punishment to reinforce discipline'

By SITEMBILE SIWAWA


KALOMO member of Parliament (MP) Request Muntanga has called on government to re-introduce corporal punishment in schools in order to reinforce discipline among pupils.

Mr Muntanga said school children have lost sense of direction and discipline because they fear no-one.

He was speaking this at the meeting for parliamentarians and children from various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) at Parliament buildings.

"Parents in our constituencies are falling in their duties to discipline their children because beating is no longer allowed and that is not the society we want for our children," he said.

The visibly-annoyed parliamentarian said child sexual abuse is now high because most of the girls are sending wrong signals to men by the way they are dressing and for the love of money.

He advised the young people to desist from having the love of money to buy clothes and wanting to look good at the expense of going to school to become better people in society.

"Young people must help us to help them by allowing parents direct them in life and not doing things meant for older people like perming hair and fixing artificial nails," he said.

Mr Muntanga said the older generation was much disciplined hence many of them were focused as compared to this generation where school children want to own a mobile phone for wrong reasons.

"Young girls want to be painting their nails and perming their hair but who are they doing it for and young boys also want to wear trousers in a fashion that we cannot understand, and we wonder who they are all doing it for," he said.

The Parliamentarian also said traditional ceremonies like initiations ceremonies and mukanda were in the olden days a driving force for discipline among children because what they were taught was rich in culture and young women were taught to stay away from men and boys were taught to stay away from women.

"But the society we have today, young girls are the ones who are going after men and elderly ones for that matter and boys are ready to die for the love of girls," he said.

And his Mbabala counterpart Ephraim Belemu also added that corporal punishment was the only solution to enforce discipline among young people.

Mr Belemu said young girls in schools do not get along with female teachers because they want to compete with teachers in the way they dress.

He said parliamentarians are ready to stand by the children and debate on issues affecting them but the children must also display appropriate behaviour.

Mr Belemu said MPs were saddened to know that children who are the future of tomorrow are being sexually abused and forced into early marriages by their parents.

He said there is need for parliament to look at the Marriage Act and match it up to the acceptable standard where only children above 18 years can get into matrimony.