African Foundation College, Epe recently won this year’s Children’s Day Debate for Secondary Schools entitled Corporal Punishment Promotes Moral Discipline. Held at the Council Chambers, Epe Local Government Area of Lagos State. The various contestants were commended by the audience as they kept the hall lively with various definitions while others demonstrated aggressively as they talked.

In a welcome address, read by Mrs Janet Titi Akinyemi, Assistant Director, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) and Zonal Coordinator in Lagos who represented the Executive Director Mr. M. M. Maidugu, noted that the increased number of youths in crime informed this year’s topic which seeks ways to reduce the phenomenon of youth violence.

The Assistant Director commended the royal fathers and institutions that welcomed and supported the programme because “ it is through this kind of concerted efforts that our hope of nurturing healthy and dependable leaders of tomorrow can be realized,” she noted.

First to mount the podium were Josephine Simeon and Priscilia John from Alaro Community Junior High School, Iraye. The two pupils supported the motion that corporal punishment enables the teacher to pass knowledge to the child aside promoting moral discipline in the society. But Gbadamosi Oluwatobi and Kunle Ojo from Molajoye Community High School, opposed the motion that corporal punishment makes a child to be dull and does not make good training possible among children because they get addicted to it and would not want to change their bad habits.

Last to mount the podium were the duo of Anu Ojewale and Adesanya Adizat from Odomola Junior Secondary School, Odomola. The two students insisted that some children have developed a thick skin for corporal punishment and in some cases it has resulted in the death of some students. While Nburi Joshua and Adeleye Idowu from Agbowa Community Junior Grammar School, Agbowa contended that parents should give corporal punishment to their wards because it will serve as a form of correction and refrain the child from negative acts in the society.

Assistant Director and Zonal Coordinator of NCAC, Mrs Janet Titi Akinyemi rounded off the debate by saying that parents need the two forms of punishment in order for them to raise their children effectively and make them good citizens that would be of good mannerisms in the society.
Chairman of Epe Local Government Area of Lagos State urged other agencies to support children so that they would become good leaders in future. “ Corporal punishment should be encouraged but it depends on the background of the family because it allows every child to choose the way that he/she wants to become in future” he said

Mrs C. J Abara in a chat with Daily Sun disclosed that parents should teach their daughters how to sit with their legs closed. She added that when children return home with poor results and they didn’t perform well, they should receive some strokes of the cane which are moral values that are dying nowadays. We now ask ourselves, should we do away completely with corporal punishment and through the children’s presentation we can see that some of them encourage parents to use corporal punishment because they feel that if you spare the rod, you would spoil the child which we were told during our own days. It has helped us to be responsible individuals today.

We were brought up through corporal punishment and when we talk we talk with examples and we teach our children with examples. We encourage every parent not to spare the child completely but use both ways to train their kids.
The duo of Femi Onikeku, a journalist with Guardian newspapers and Ohio Ola Isaiah, an art critic who served as judges for the competition examined contestants on the basis of presentation, elocution and appearance.

HRM Oloja K. Ishola Animashaun Oloja Of Epeland donated the first prize trophy, Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation donated the second prize trophy. Hon. Olusegun Jamui Agbaje, Chairman, Epe Local government donated the third prize while Fobat Group International Lagos donated the trophy for the best contestant.

African Foundation College, Epe came first with 81 percent, closely followed by Citizen Comprehensive College, Temu (79 percent) while Elbosa College, Papa, Epe came third with 78 percent. Some of the schools that participated in the debate include Alaro Community Junior High School, Iraye, Army Children Junior High School, Epe, Epe Grammar School, Epe, Igbo-Apawa Community Junior High School, Igbo-Apawa. Others include; Ogunmodede Junior College, Papa-Epe, Nazareth Junior College, Ibonwon, and Molajoye Community High School, Molajoye among others.