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[AMMAN, 14 July 2008] - Over half of Jordanian children [between the ages of six and 18] are physically abused or exposed to some form of aggressive behaviour by their parents or school teachers, according to a recent study by UNICEF. Whether at home or at school, beating, slapping and receiving demeaning insults have become commonplace. The study, based on a sample of nearly 1,000 children, showed that 70 per cent of children said they were insulted by their parents; 53 per cent said they were hit, and 34 per cent said they were severely abused physically. Conditions at school are no better than at home, with 71 percent of children accusing teachers of humiliating them in public. Physical abuse in schools is also prevalent, with 57 percent of children saying they were subjected to severe physical abuse by teachers. Salem, a government school teacher, said parents often encouraged teachers to discipline their children to improve their educational achievements: "Some parents come to school and specifically ask us to beat their children," said Salem, noting that at least 80 per cent of teachers regularly hit their students. Salem is one of many teachers who routinely "beat certain types of student", mainly because they are disobedient during class or during break, he said. "If the teacher did not hit students, his class would become chaotic and good students would be deprived of the chance to learn," he said. The average class-size in government schools is 40, while in schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) it is 55. Salem's colleague is currently facing disciplinary proceedings for bursting a child's eardrum after "casually" slapping him for a misdemeanour. The young teacher, who was appointed last summer, faces dismissal, said a Ministry of Education source. Low self-esteem "Abused children suffer from low self-esteem and are unhappy with such conditions, but it doesn't bother their parents as much," she noted. "What happens is that these behaviours, when allowed to go on for as long as they have, become a socially acceptable norm," she said. A another survey conducted by the government-run National Council for Family Affairs in 2005 showed that one in three people admitted to seeing or hearing about violence among relatives. The National Council for Family Affairs study, in which 15,000 people were surveyed, showed that most abuses were by the father, followed by a brother, and the mother.
UNICEF experts say the phenomenon is hard to fight because parents do not mind their children being beaten, and Gender and Child Protection Officer Maha Homsi said the problem was on the rise.