Free SHS Produced Better Results Than Era of Corporal Punishment – Dr Adutwum

Former Education Minister Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has strongly defended the academic outcomes recorded under the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme, insisting that students performed better despite the abolition of corporal punishment.

Speaking in an interview with Kwame Tanko on the Ghana Se Sen Morning Show on Lawson TV/Radio, Dr Adutwum said the argument that students were more disciplined and performed better in the past because corporal punishment was allowed does not stand up to the available evidence.

He said, “over and over again,” the results recorded under Free SHS were better than those from the period critics describe as an era of discipline, where corporal punishment was used in schools.

According to Dr Adutwum, the focus should not be on caning students but on putting in place effective systems that promote discipline while also improving teaching and learning.

He argued that some forms of caning previously administered by teachers went beyond discipline and amounted to brutality, which justified the decision to abolish corporal punishment.

Dr Adutwum also cited WASSCE performance figures to buttress his position, comparing results from 2015, when corporal punishment was still permitted, with those recorded in 2023.

He noted that in 2015, students who obtained grades A1 to C6 recorded 50.29% in English, 25.29% in Mathematics, 23.63% in Integrated Science and 51.34% in Social Studies.

By 2023, he said, the figures had increased to 73.11% in English, 62.23% in Mathematics, 66.62% in Integrated Science and 76.76% in Social Studies.

Dr Adutwum therefore maintained that the data does not support claims that abolishing corporal punishment has resulted in indiscipline and poor academic performance in Ghanaian schools.