Blackboard CHALK and School Dinner CHEESE

In February this year, pupils from Gracemount High School paid a visit to their paired school in Ogwini, south Africa. Pupils at Ogwini were interviewed about what they thought about their education. They were asked if they needed to pay for primary education, they replied, 'In primary you don't need to pay for much but now in high school you need to pay for everything including your resources', although they don't need to pay for their uniforms.

They were asked what type of discipline is used and they said, 'We get hit if we do something wrong so we have to follow rules of the school to avoid it'.

They would get this for making noise in class or not doing homework or even for being late. This compared to Scottish schools is quite different. Most Scottish schools believe in detention and other non-corporal punishments. Some of the pupils in Ogwini stated, 'if you get detention, the next day you are going to the same mistake again and again'. Some also think that corporal punishment is not bad. Although one of the pupils interviewed said that she would not be concentrating in class because she was scared that she might get hit. The Gracemount High School interviewers found out that not all of the teachers hit pupils. They then asked the pupils from Ogwini if they liked them better. They replied, 'Some teachers hit you and you know why so you know its OK, but sometimes you get hit for things you never did. There was a new teacher and we all liked her but then she started hitting us for asking a question she had already answered, so now we don't like her.'

After this insight, we wondered: should schools in Scotland step up and bring back corporal punishment to sort out the behaviour in our schools?

Written by Kirsty, Sarah, Billie and Mary

Researchers: Claire, Lewis and Paula