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leaving a negative impact on the learned Ghanaian.

Disciplinary actions of teachers on pupils often tend to have
adverse physical, mental and emotional effects on the pupils.
Educators should be able to distinguish between what child

abuse is and what punishment is. Child abuse is defined as
maltreatment of a child by a parent, guardian, or other adult responsible for his
or her welfare, e.g. physical violence, neglect, sexual assault, or emotional
cruelty.

Types of child abuse in schools
1. Physical abuse: Two examples of inappropriate punishments in

schools are as follows; kneeling and caning. This type of child
abuse is termed as physical abuse.
2. Emotional abuse: This is when a teacher continually humiliates
some students publicly usually because these students do not
perform as the other students.
3. Sexual abuse: This can take the form of fondling, making a child

touch the abusive individual sexually or be touched sexually,
rape, sodomy, exhibitionism, or involving a child in prostitution or
child pornography.

Causes of child abuse in schools
Inadequate training: Considering the possible causes of these
misconducts among teachers, it would be realized that the
causes usually originate from the training these teachers

undergo. Inadequate training results in teachers not having the
prerequisite skills to properly handle students.
Lack of motivation: Lack of motivation of teachers may as well
result in child abuse and attitudes of teachers that might affect
the lives of children negatively.

Lack of self-control: Lack of self-control is another issue that is
worth noting. Thus, if teachers are unable to put their behaviour
under control, then they may tend to behave in unacceptable
ways. This may result in child molesting among others.

Effects of child abuse in schools