Rights panel opposes proposal on corporal punishment

The government’s proposed alternatives to corporal punishment at schools could also be a violation of human rights if they cause students physical pain, South Korea’s rights watchdog said Thursday.

The Education Ministry in January started taking steps to revise an enforcement ordinance for a related education law, aiming to ban corporal punishment and introduce various other forms of punishment, including push-ups, walking laps around a track and standing at the back of the classroom. Such disciplinary measures, however, also inflict physical pain on students and may violate their rights, according to the National Human Rights Commission.

“The boundary between corporal punishment and its alternatives is vague, and it isn’t clear which is more painful,” said an official at the commission who spoke on the condition of anonymity. 

(Yonhap News)