This amendment would make Taiwan the 109th country in the world to ban corporal punishment in schools, according to the Humanistic Education Foundation, the prime supporter of the legislation.
The new act states that students' rights over their physical and mental development, as well as rights to learning and education, shall be protected by the country. It states specifically that the country should take measures to "protect students from being harmed physically or mentally by any form of corporal punishment."
The Legislature also passed an additional resolution, stipulating that the Ministry of Education and the National Teachers' Association should finish drafting points for attention within six months for schools to set up rules on how teachers should counsel and discipline students who engage in bullying, stealing, extortion or intimidation of other students.
MOE officials said that they already had established guidelines regarding corporal punishment, but the resolution asked for further clarification. Legislators were concerned that the new law might lead teachers to be passive, hesitant to discipline students due to fear of breaking the law.
Chang Li-an, a spokesperson from the Student Affairs Committee under the MOE, explained that the points of attention would have to include clear descriptions of what would count as corporal punishment, as well as providing suggestions and examples of how to discipline students without having to resort to corporal punishment.
The ministry supported passing such an amendment, Chang said, and that it hoped the legislation would encourage teachers to create disciplinary methods that were more effective and had less negative effects on a child's well-being.
Civic groups--many of which advocated for years to end corporal punishment--welcomed passage of the amendment. "We support the idea from the perspective of human rights," said Wang Mei-en, vice executive director of the Child Welfare League Foundation. Saying that parents as well as teachers traditionally deemed it right to discipline kids as they saw necessary, Wang said that, as humans, children should be respected just like adults.
An HEF report from last year contained a survey of elementary and secondary school students which found that around 65 percent, or 1.84 million, said they had experienced corporal punishment, mostly by being hit on the palm or buttocks. The report stated that 83 percent of teachers in Taipei said the general situation of corporal punishment on campus was not serious. The HEF report also said that national associations of teachers and parents supported non-corporal punishment, but that they were unfamiliar with alternative disciplinary methods.
Wang suggested that measures should also be taken to reduce the burden on teachers, helping them to better manage their anger and other emotions. "The student-teacher ratio is higher in Taiwan than in many other advanced countries," she claimed, adding that other relevant measures should also be taken to help fulfill the promise of the new law.
In this regard, Chang said the ministry was planning to help schools develop more professional counselling skills, provide on-the-job training for teachers to improve their class management skills and offer administrative support so that teachers could concentrate on their jobs. In response to campus bullying, the MOE had set up a 24-hour hotline in April and drawn up procedures to track reported cases, Chang said.