TEACHERS' ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE USE OF CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AS A BEHAVIOURAL CORRECTIVE MEASURE IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN BAYELSA CENTRAL SENATORIAL DISTRICT, BAYELSA STATE

Abstract

This paper examined the attitude of primary school teachers towards the use of corporal punishment as a behavioural corrective measure in primary Schools in Bayelsa Central Senatorial District, Bayelsa State. This study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The population for this study comprised all public and private primary school teachers in Bayelsa Central Senatorial District, Bayelsa State. This study used a multi-stage sampling technique to involve all the 3 local government areas in the senatorial district. Simple random technique was used. Stratified sampling was used to select 7 public and 3 private primary schools in each of the LGAs. The simple random sampling was used to select primary school teachers in each of the public and private primary schools. At the end of the selection, 30 primary schools were used for the study, 70% were public and 30% were private primary schools. A total of 210 primary school teachers were selected but 204 primary schools teachers fully participated in the study. A self-designed research instrument was used to obtain data for this study. Primary School Teachers' Attitude towards the use of Corporal Punishment Questionnaire (PSTAUCPQ) the reliability co-efficient of the instrument was conducted using t-test method and the value of 0.77 was obtained. Data collected were analyzed using both descriptive (mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (t-test). The findings indicated that Primary School Teachers’ attitude towards the use of corporal punishment as a behavioural corrective measure in Primary School was positive (MA=2.77), there was no significant difference between public and private primary school teachers' attitude towards the use of corporal punishment as a behavioural correctivemeasure in Primary Schools (t=1.08; df= 202; p>0.05). Based on the findings, it was recommended that seminars, workshops and training should be organized for primary school teachers both in public and private schools on other corrective measures of disciplining pupils so as to change their attitude towards the use of corporal punishment.