TAIWANTAIWANIn a 2011 poll of over 2,000 students at schools in 22 cities and counties, nearly 30% of junior high school students and 20% of elementary school students had experienced corporal punishment, despite the prohibition of school corporal punishment enacted in 2006. Twenty per cent of students had experienced verbal abuse or threats from their teachers.
(Reported in “Legal ban has not stopped corporal punishment: poll”, Taipei Times, 10 Aug 2011)
Government research has shown a drop in the incidence of corporal punishment in schools since it was prohibited in December 2006. Surveys among junior high students conducted every two months reveal that corporal punishment of students fell from 42.5% in 2006 to 29.2% in 2007 and to 15.8% in the first two months of 2008 (compared with 27.7% in the first two months of 2007).
(Reported in The China Post, 25 April 2008)
In a nationwide survey by the Humanistic Education Foundation of 2,779 elementary and junior high school students in April and May 2007 more than 52.8% reported receiving corporal punishment, representing a decline compared with the figure of 64% for 2005. There was also a change in the types of punishment inflicted – student beatings dropped from 51% in 2005 to 27.3% in 2007, while the use of fazhan (standing for a certain period of time) increased from 9.7% in 2005 to 35% in 2007.
(Reported in the Taipei Times, 4 June 2007)
In January 2007, the findings from a survey of 5,630 elementary and junior high school educators who had attended discussions hosted by the 21st Century Education Association in autumn 2006 were published, revealing that 30% of teachers believed that corporal punishment is appropriate and necessary in improving academic performance, study skills and students’ characters; 60% felt that educators would continue to use physical force as a disciplinary measure, despite the prohibition of corporal punishment in law; 69% felt that an online forum for sharing and discussing positive disciplinary methods would facilitate the move away from corporal punishment.
(Reported in The China Post, 19 January 2007)
The Humanistic Education Foundation conducted five surveys between 1999 and 2005 which showed a decline in the use of corporal punishment in schools. In 1999, 83.4% of students interviewed reported experiencing corporal punishment in that academic year. In 2000, the figure was 74.2%, in 2001 70.9%, and in 2004 it was 69.4%. In 2005, the survey was conducted in 23 cities/counties in Taiwan, involving 3,240 respondents (1,164 junior high school students and 2,076 primary school students). Almost two thirds of students (65.1%) reported having experienced corporal punishment, 56.2% of primary school students and 70% of junior high school students. The most common form of corporal punishment was by hitting on the palms or bottoms with a hand or stick (47.7%). Direct infliction of physical pain was used in 56.8% of cases (including hitting with a hand or stick, deprivation of physical needs, holding painful postures). Almost a quarter (23.9%) of students received punishment that may constitute crimes of assault, instigation of assault or public insults. Almost one in ten (9.5%) of those who experienced physical pain were punished in this way over 10 times during the year.
(Humanistic Education Foundation, 2005, How much does it hurt? Only the children can tell: HEF 2005 survey of corporal punishment in schools, HEF)