It has been a decade since the country banned corporal punishment. But the promotion and effecting of this archaic form of discipline continue behind the scenes in Samoa, especially in homes and within families as well as schools.

A global movement to end violence against children, now known as End Corporal Punishment, is not convinced Samoa has undertaken the necessary legal reform in order to achieve “full prohibition” of corporal punishment.

In its country report for Samoa, dated March 2022, it said “Prohibition is still to be achieved in the home, alternative care settings, daycare, and schools”. It then makes reference to Samoa’s Article 14 of the Infants Ordinance 1961. 

“The right of any parent, teacher, or other person having the lawful control or charge of a child to administer reasonable punishment to such child,” reads the legal provision.

According to End Corporal Punishment, that legal provision is “near-universal acceptance of a certain level of violence in childrearing, which “means that in the absence of explicit prohibition, corporal punishment would be seen as “reasonable”. 

We believe this is what happened at Wesley College in Faleula, with an article (Teacher sacked for beating up student), in yesterday’s edition of the Samoa Observer, confirming that the educational institution had to terminate a teacher for the assault of a student. The fact that the beaten-up student had a hearing impairment adds another dimension to the unfortunate incident.

Wesley College Principal, Reverend Aliilelei Lefua Leaana told Samoa Observer in an interview that despite the family having forgiven the teacher for the alleged incident, the teacher needed to go through the school's protocols and face the consequences of his actions.

"We've sorted things out with the family, I even went there with the teacher who was accused and apologised properly to the family and everything was sorted," he said.

"In fact, the family even went to the police to withdraw their complaint but they couldn't because of the police's no-drop policy so the case is still ongoing and the mother of the child will have to appear in court to say that she does not want to press any charges."

According to the article, the alleged assault occurred last week, though the Principal is of the view that it is a "misunderstanding" as the student has a “hearing problem” caused by an illness.

"Because he has hearing problems, he couldn't hear the teacher talking to him or instructing him to do something. The teacher thought he was being ignorant and he ended up beating him up," Rev. Leaana said.

The fact that the student has a hearing impairment – which is based on the Wesley College Principal’s own admission during his interview with this newspaper – points to the lack of awareness of his condition by the teacher and the college.

How can the teacher not know the student’s condition and doesn’t the college and the Principal for that matter have a responsibility to advise teachers if there are children with ‘special educational needs’ in their class?

Does the college have a system that would enable children with ‘special educational needs’, such as those who have been diagnosed with hearing impairment, to integrate into the school and classroom environment?

Sadly, it appears there are cracks in the system at one of the oldest colleges in Samoa, and an innocent student had to pay the price by getting assaulted for no fault of his own. We don’t condone the actions of the former teacher either, and we believe the law should take its course in relation to his conduct, but the absence of a policy in schools to cater to children with ‘special educational needs’ make others with similar conditions vulnerable. This loophole in Samoa’s education policy comes under the remit of the Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture (MESC). Therefore, can the MESC advise us whether it has such a policy for schools and colleges that specifically relates to students with ‘special educational needs’ and if it exists how it enforces the implementation of the policy?

But the bigger skeleton in the closet for Samoa is Article 14 of the Infants Ordinance 1961, whose existence in the country’s legal statutes means corporal punishment of some form or kind will continue to pervade society to the detriment of our children.

End Corporal Punishment has called for the total abolition of that provision: “This provision should be explicitly repealed, so that there is clarity in the law that no degree or kind of corporal punishment can be considered ‘reasonable’ or lawful, and prohibition should be enacted of all corporal punishment of children by all persons with authority over them.”

We understand this issue was raised at Samoa’s Universal Period Review during the 39th session in 2021. This is a good time for the Attorney General’s Office to give us an update on where the country currently is in making corporal punishment totally unlawful, in line with the undertaking that the Samoa Government has given before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. 

The incident at Wesley College is a wake-up call for the various actors in Samoa working in this space to move quickly to protect the children of Samoa. Time is of the essence.