Teachers’ Views on Tanzania Corporal Punishment Legal Policy in Schools: Level and Manner of Implementation

Elkana S. Ntebi
Institute of Adult Education, Tanzania
Email: entebi@iae.ac.tz

Abstract: Globally, countries are working out to abolish the use of corporal punishment in schools. With no exclusion, Tanzania has been making different efforts to attain full eradication of corporal punishment (CP) in schools, including introducing the policy on how to administer corporal punishment in schools. Despite the efforts, teachers are witnessed using CP in managing discipline to their students. Studies revealed that the manner and extent for implementation of CP policy differs from one school to another. This study focused on exploring factors accounting for the level and manner of implementing the policy. The study used quantitative approach, and descriptive design which applied questionnaire as a tool for data collection. The data were collected from 13 Tanzanian primary school teachers. The findings show that students’ discipline; poor society involvement; lack of support from school and teachers not being updated of the policy are factors associated with manner and level of implementation of the policy. There is a need to find inclusive methods on how schools and community can work on improving students’ discipline, the responsible body for the policy needs to work on how it updates teachers on the policy. This will help them to see challenges and find collective ways to mitigate.