After 25 years teaching, Head teacher Prudence Mdluli, has banned corporal punishment at Mabamba Primary School in Swaziland.

"They should try not to do it"

Prudence Mdluli decided to stop beatings in her school, going against her twenty-five years in teaching, and against the practice of many other teachers.

She called a meeting, and told the staff that they were to stop corporal punishment. The staff, she says, were not happy.

"I told them they should try not to do it. If a child needs corporal punishment, they should send that child to me."

"As Swazi children, they should have it"

Ms Mdluli explains some children in Swaziland experience beatings at home and at school: "Many believe children who are not beaten will be spoilt - as Swazi children, they should have it.  Some parents don't want the children to be punished, others say it's a Swazi custom, if you don't beat them they don't do so well."

Ms Mdluli is encouraged by movements within government to promote a more positive, non-violent forms of discipline based on respect for children’s rights.

"It affects children without parents"

Ms Mdluli decided to stop when she realised that the children most often punished were the most vulnerable. "It sometimes affects children without parents, children who sometimes come late because they have been doing domestic work," she explains. "We want our cildren to feel safe in school and not to be afraid".

Swaziland has the highest HIV/Aids prevalence rate in the world, creating a generation of children without parents.  

Of 205 children registered to Mabamba Primary School, 130 are classed as OVCs - Swazi shorthand for "orphans and vulnerable children".   

Change takes time

Ms Mdluli acknowledges it is difficult to stamp out the practice, and that teachers have to learn different strategies. However, she talks to her teachers and the school is changing.  The staff are encouraged to listen to the children and to be understanding.

This month, Ms Mdluli has been visiting a school in Wales taking the first steps to establish a partnership between her school and Maes-y-llan, near Wrexham.   "I am looking forward to continuing with the global school partnership," she says.  "We teachers have a lot we can learn from each other."

How did they do that?

Head teacher Prudence Mdluli has taught at Mabamba Primary School in Mhlosheni District for 14 years, leading a team of seven teachers educating 205 children aged from 6-18 years.

In April, she was invited to a meeting organised by Carol Parry from the UK charity Swazaid. 

Ms Parry had facilitated the twinning of Kambhoke School - also in a rural district of Swaziland - with Rhosymedre in North Wales. This school partnership had received a DFID Global Schools Partnership grant enabling staff to visit one another's schools, and the two communities to develop their educational partnership.

Ms Parry was keen to find out whether more Swazi schools wanted to follow in the footsteps of Kambhoke and Rhosymedre and 'twin' with the UK.

In addressing interested schools, Ms Parry, who specialises in children's mental health and safety, talked about the significant proportion of orphans who attend the school at Kambhoke.

Kambhoke School is an 'informal school', set up by community leader Sipho Mamba in partnership with a World Food Programme school feeding centre.

Ms Parry explained that Kambhoke staff from the outset decided to create a safe environment for the pupils, and have never allowed corporal punishment.

Prudence Mdluli was affected by Parry’s presentation. "After [meeting Carol Parry], I saw corporal punishment was something bad," she explains, "which affects the parentless children."  As a result, she made the decision to ban corporal punishment in her school. 

Read more about the Kambhoke Rhosymedre partnership.

Listen to teachers and children at Kambhoke School and young people discussing corporal punishment on BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents Swaziland: Kingdom of the Kids. 
 
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