Pupils demand end to corporal punishment

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32819, 20 January 1972, Page 12

Pupils demand end to corporal punishment

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 19. Secondary school pupils called for the immediate abolition of corporal punishment, external examinations and the prefect system at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Secondary School Students’ Association today.

They said that corporal punishment violated normal human rights, was outdated, and criminal.

A secondary schools inspector, Mr G. Aitken, who was at the meeting, said the Education Department was phasing out corporal punishment.

When asked when the department would finally abol- ; ish the punishment, Mr Aitken said he supposed one ; day someone would make the decision to stop it. The pupils said the board of i governors system for schools was-‘ineffectual and inconsis-

tent. They asked that a pupils’ representative be able to sit-in on or participate in meetings of boards of: governors.

The pupils also called , for the Maori language to be compulsory in schools, .student control of appearance, and . a wider choice of subjects. Immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all New Zealand, United States and allied forces from South-East Asia and an immediate end to sporting contact » with South Africa were also set down as aims by the association.