NRS-16946 | Punishment Books [Markwell Public School]

Regulations under the Public Schools Act of 1866, adopted by the Council [of Education] 27 February 1867 regulated the punishment of children in schools by stipulating: “In the government of the pupils, all degrading and injurious punishments are to be avoided. The Teacher’s discipline must be mild but firm, his manner kindly, his demeanour cheerful and calculated to gain the confidence of his pupils, and his language marked by strict propriety. While he should overlook no offence, his aim should be to prevent the necessity for punishment by the improvement of the offender.”In relation to corporal punishment the regulations continue: “Corporal punishment should be inflicted in extreme cases only, and then as a last resource; and the teacher must keep a record of the time and place at which pupils were corporally chastised, the amount of such punishment and the nature of the offence.”Uniform stationery soon evolved to enable compliance with these regulations. These punishment books are registers of all cases in which corporal punishment was given to pupils. The information they detail includes: the pupil’s name; age; nature of offence; amount of punishment (i.e. number of strokes); instrument of punishment (almost invariably the cane); the date of the punishment; and by whom the punishment was inflicted.The series from Markwell Public School is represented by a single volume, the last in the series, which covers the period from 1903 until the closure of the school in 1962. A note at the foot of p.9 reads “From 26 May 1941 Corporal Punishment abolished by the direction of Mr Evatt Education Minister, during July 1941.” The next case recorded after this note occurred in 1945. No further cases are recorded after 1949, although the repeated signatures of the Inspectors of Schools, who viewed the volume on the occasion of their regular visits of inspection, demonstrate that the record continued current until the school’s closure.