Summary
Key findings
- Exposure to corporal punishment lowers the chance of being proficient by 6.6 percentage points in English and 7.7 percentage points in mathematics.
- The effect is larger in mathematics and larger for girls, even though boys are punished more often: girls lose about 7.4 points in English and 9 points in mathematics, against 5.5 and 5.7 points for boys.
- The harm is greatest where corporal punishment is socially disapproved (about 10 points in English and 17 in mathematics) and smaller where it is normalised (about 4–5 points); this does not mean it helps anywhere.
- Bans alone are unlikely to work: they need to be paired with efforts that change norms and train teachers in non-violent discipline.
Methodology & context
- Uses nationally representative Uwezo Uganda survey data from 2016 and 2024 (about 33,000 enrolled children tested at home), linking pupils to their schools and households.
- Instrumental-variable (two-stage least squares) design using exposure to community anti-child-violence awareness campaigns, with district fixed effects and child, household and school controls.
- The data are repeated cross-sections and do not follow the same pupils; the estimate applies to schools that respond to campaigns, and the paper notes campaigns may not be randomly placed, testing robustness with a sensitivity analysis. Around 70% of Ugandan primary schools report using corporal punishment, despite a legal ban.
Summary drafted with AI from the AFEP working paper and policy brief, and checked against them. See the full study for details.
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of corporal punishment (CP) on learning outcomes in primary schools in Uganda. Using nationally representative pupil and school-level data linked to household information, I exploit exogenous variation in awareness campaigns as an instrument for CP to identify causal effects. On average, exposure to CP reduces the probability of being proficient in English by 6.6 percentage points and in Mathematics by 7.7 percentage points. Moreover, the negative effect of CP is strongest in communities where corporal punishment is socially disapproved, while it is comparatively smaller in areas where CP is normalized. These findings underscore the need to pair enforcement with interventions that shift social norms and promote non-violent discipline in schools.