Gospel musician Ohemaa Mercy has joined Ghana’s ongoing conversation about discipline in schools, arguing that corporal punishment should be brought back as a way of helping teachers maintain order in the classroom.
The musician shared her views during an interview with George Quaye on Joy Prime, drawing from her own experience as a teacher to explain why she believes the removal of caning has contributed to growing indiscipline among students.
According to Ohemaa Mercy, students were more likely to pay attention and take their studies seriously when they knew there were consequences for misbehaviour or poor performance.
She said her position was informed largely by what she witnessed while teaching, insisting that the presence of the cane served as a deterrent for some students.
“For me, it’s a big problem because students will be attentive when they see that there is a cane. For me, that’s my experience. But when there is no cane, it means there is no discipline,” she said.
Ohemaa Mercy therefore disagreed with the decision to stop corporal punishment in schools, arguing that it should be reconsidered.
“Stopping caning in school, some way, somehow, is not the best. So for me, it should be reintroduced,” she said.
Reflecting on her own days as a student, she recalled how the fear of punishment pushed her and her classmates to take certain subjects more seriously.
She mentioned English and Mathematics among the subjects where students were expected to work hard because they knew failure to meet their teachers’ expectations could attract punishment.
“We have to force ourselves to learn by force because we know that our English teacher will cane us when we are unable to get the right word. Math teacher will cane us,” she recalled.
The gospel musician also spoke about her own approach to discipline when she was teaching, admitting that she was particularly strict with students she considered stubborn or unwilling to follow instructions.
She said some of her former students may remember her most for the disciplinary measures she used in the classroom.
“I think the only thing that they will remember me, I was really caning. Caning very well,” she said.
Her comments have reignited the broader debate over how schools should deal with indiscipline, with questions continuing over whether corporal punishment remains an effective disciplinary tool or whether schools should rely on alternative approaches to student behaviour.
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