Attitude of stakeholders towards the use of corporal punishment in selected secondary schools in Ilorin Metropolis

Abstract

This paper examined the attitude of stakeholders on the use of corporal punishment in secondary schools in Ilorin Metropolis. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population comprised all secondary school teachers, parents and secondary school students in Ilorin Metropolis. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 100 teachers and 100 students while convenient sampling technique was used to select 100 parents who are not into teaching profession, who responded to the questionnaire making a total of 300 sample size. Researchers’ designed instrument titled ‘Attitude of Stakeholders towards Corporal Punishment Questionnaire was used to elicit data for the study. The questionnaire was validated by three lecturers from the department of Social Sciences Education, University of Ilorin, Ilorin Nigeria. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained using Cronbach Alpha and the reliability value of the questionnaire stood at 0.71. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of percentage and inferential statistics of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and independent t-test to answer the research question and to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed among others that the attitude of stakeholders on the use of corporal punishment was negative. The study concluded that stakeholders have negative attitude towards corporal punishment as a result of its ineffectiveness in inculcating positive behaviour among secondary school students. It was therefore recommended that teachers should use non-physical disciplinary measures as an alternative to beating or inflicting pains on secondary school students in Ilorin Metropolis.