Ministry urges schools to stop corporal punishment

The Ministry of Education is proposing that schools wipe out corporal punishment, according to a proposal for public discussion published on the ministry's website on June 25.

Comments are being requested by e-mail until July 10.

According to the proposal, schools should guarantee and avoid the violation of students' rights, root out corporal punishment or disguised forms of corporal punishment, as well as avoid illegal restrictions of personal freedom and arbitrary charges.

A series of cases of violence against students has caught public attention recently.

On May 20, a primary school teacher in Shaanxi beat one of her students in front of 50 other students because the student didn't take his ID card to school.

Also on May 20, a 3-year-old in Hunan died with heat stroke after being locked in a school bus for seven hours because her teacher forgot she was there.

Also in late May, the Xinhua News Agency reported that a kindergarten teacher in Hangzhou used ultraviolet lamps to punish 12 children who didn't brush their teeth.