§ Mr. Winnickasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will now make a statement on the ending of caning in schools for the disabled and in all primary schools.
§ Mr. Gordon Walker:My consultations on the recommendations of the Plowden Council have shown that the use of corporal punishment in all types of school is increasingy deprecated by teachers. But while there is very wide support for the view that corporal punishment should have no place as a regular method of school discipline, many teachers still hold that in some circumstances teachers would be in an impossible position if they were forbidden to use a reasonable amount of force by way of correction and if pupils knew that teachers were so forbidden. This was the view expressed in the note of reservation in the Plowden Report.
My own view is that the practice of corporal punishment should disappear from our schools, and I hope that the local education authorities, the governing bodies of schools and the teachers themselves will all use their powers and influence to achieve this end. I am convinced that the use of corporal punishment for handicapped children should now cease entirely and I shall shortly be consulting the associations representing the teachers and the local education authorities on this aspect of the question.