As a taxpayer, I’m always pleased when I see examples of our money being spent on worthwhile causes - such as the Department for International Development’s 2005 report on school experiences in Botswana and Ghana. Their findings on Katsir ‘B’ School were particularly worth funding:

Katsir JSS was a high performing urban school originally founded by British and Ghanaian Methodists in 1858. In 1991 the school was divided into two different schools ‘A’ and ‘B’, occupying different parts of the same two-storey building but with a completely different management and staff. The school was located in a middle class residential area about 50 metres from the sea, surrounded by several nationally renowned educational institutions. Many students lived outside the locality. Parents worked in a wide range of occupations, including professionals (doctors, teachers), carpenters, traders and farmers. Their mothers tended to have low paid jobs. In educational terms, the questionnaire sample indicated that 30% of the fathers had university education compared to 8.3% of the mothers.

OK, so doubtless lots of bright, intelligent young ladies there, well-motivated at home. Perfect for my interests. Let’s see what our intrepid British civil servants uncovered on their holiday at the taxpayers’ expenses. (Sorry, important working trip).

In interviews, teachers claimed to praise and punish equally, although the mode and intensity was sometimes different. The head added that the use of corporal punishment, usually administered by male teachers, was not a frequent practice in the school. Most of the caning that was administered did not exceed six lashes and thus was not recorded in the Discipline Book.

From the students’ perspective caning had a negative effect… Others described the disturbing effect of caning on their studies. When a girl was caned in front of the whole school for fighting she said, ‘…after this, coming to school was difficult.’ Another reported that when she was caned for non-payment of school fees, ‘…I felt like never coming to school again.’

Yet another girl put it this way: ‘When I am afraid I will be caned, I find it difficult to come to school’. For other female and male students, their most embarrassing days in school were when they got caned for various offences. Girls in particular disliked corporal punishment, which they were subject to by the teachers and prefects.

In summary, this was a high performing school with low drop out.

The incongruity of the final sentence made me smile, as if the British government officials were somehow trying to establish a link between their previous paragraphs and their conclusion. (Was the report secretly commissioned by the old guard in the UK education department, I wonder?). And how interesting that punishment of six strokes or less are not deemed serious enough to be recorded in the Discipline Book. The look on a girl’s face when the Headmaster tells her that she’s to be punished and reaches for said tome can only be imagined.

I fancy being a civil servant: I need a team to work with me at high salaries and on lavish expenses accounts to investigate caning techniques in Asia. Any candidates out there?

-------

Now you can buy a book of the best entries from "The Spanking Writers".