Dr Macphelane Ejah, the Executive Director of the International Training Research and Advocacy Project (INTRAP), has said that banning corporal punishment in schools would be counterproductive.

Ejah said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar on Thursday, reacting to the Lagos State Government's ban on flogging.

According to him, the policy will spike recalcitrant behaviour in Lagos in the next five years.

NAN reports that recently, the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Mr. Jamiu Alli-Balogun, affirmed the ban, arguing that counselling should be the major corrective measure for student misbehaviour.

“Flogging may lead to potential injuries or more severe consequences,” he said.

He also said that the State Government was advocating “positive reinforcement strategies and minor corrective actions.”

Ejah contended that corporal punishment, such as flogging, should remain in schools.

He said that “what should be looked at is the dynamics of allowing only well-trained teachers with sound minds to take on the responsibility of teaching.

“If there are incidents where teachers misuse their position, and there are injuries, we should not use that to generalise for every teacher but look around to find out what is wrong.

“At home, parents flog and punish their children, not to maim them but correct them.

“This should be the same way the teacher disciplines the child.

“Discipline is present in our culture, religion, and even psychology.

“We should not just wake up and make decisions without facts and data on whether flogging kills children,” Ejah said.

He said that counselling is good, but “proposing it in place of corporal punishment means the officials of the Lagos State Government did not understand the reality on the ground.”

He said that in most schools in the country, students are taught largely career counselling; what about attitudinal and behavioural counselling?

“In a situation where a child is counselled after committing an offence and because behaviour change is not automatic, what should be used as a deterrent to ensure that the child conforms to the new behaviour?

“There are some teachers that you see carrying the cane in school.

“They do not need to flog you, but you will know that it is a direct signal for you to behave.

“The Lagos State Government got it wrong with the policy,” he said.

Ejah said: “As a fully grown man, I had to go back to my secondary school to thank my principal for flogging me because it helped to reshape me.

“But today, we have leaders who just want to borrow Western culture without considering its suitability to ours.

Also, a Professor of Microbiology from the University of Calabar, Prof. Ayodeji Owolabi, said: “If there is no effective disciplinary measure, the tendency is that children would grow up lawless.

Owolabi said that corporal punishment should be carefully carried out so as not to inflict harm or be taken to the extreme because the idea is to correct the child, not to inflict injuries.

“I have no problem with counselling a child, but there is a need for discipline.

“Corporal punishment, like flogging, should not be banned; it should rather be done in love and moderation,” he said.