Eastern Cape gives more hidings - survey

2012-05-03 19:12

Pretoria - Children are more likely to be given a hiding in the Eastern Cape than the rest of South Africa, Statistics SA (Stats SA) said on Thursday.

"The safest place to be a child seems to be the Western Cape," Niel Roux, chief survey statistician, said in Pretoria.

Four percent of pupils in the Western Cape had experienced corporal punishment at school, according to the Stats SA General Household Survey 2011 released on Thursday.

Corporal punishment was most likely in the Eastern Cape, at 30%. This was followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 23% and the Free State at 22%.

The Northern Cape, North West, and Gauteng had all shown declines since the previous survey.

However, there were sharp increases in Limpopo, from 9% in 2010 to 19% in 2011, and the Eastern Cape which had increased from 23% in 2010 to 30% the next year.

Seventeen percent of pupils nationally had experienced corporal punishment.

Roux said this figure had held fairly steady since Stats SA started asking about corporal punishment in 2009, when it was 16.8%.

Stats SA surveyed around 30 000 households between July and September 2011.

- SAPA