A legal opinion signed by Ms Chen for the lobby group Family First says case law since Section 59 of the Crimes Act was changed have confirmed that is now illegal for parents to use force against a child for the purpose of correction, even if the force is "reasonable".

"Therefore, in our opinion, statements made by politicians to the effect that the new Section 59 does not criminalise 'good parents' for lightly smacking their children are inconsistent with the legal effect of Section 59 and the application of that section in practice," the opinion says. Continue reading

iTaukei Affairs Board representative to the Labasa Inter Agency Committee on Child Welfare, Ravuama Naceba, has been in Dogotuki addressing the issue.

"When addressing the issue, we had offered the parents a choice on whether they wanted to continue exercising their freedom of religion or whether they wanted to be taken to task for denying their child's right to education," he said.

After considering their situation, the parents chose to allow their children to attend classes in the nearest school.

Ravuama said the committee needed to confirm whether issues such as the freedom of religion superseded the right of children to immunisation and education or whether it was subjective to these rights.

Source

• Fiji Times
• Image: 1.bp.blogspot.com

A Herald-DigiPoll survey shows the there is support for this recommendation. Three-quarters believed that high-school pupils needed to be taught more than the mechanics of sex.

The Prime Minister, however, has reservations. He suggested the Government would have to tread carefully because some parents felt expanded sex education would cut across their responsibilities and rights. Continue reading

However the child's father says that when he visited the school he found his 7 year old daughter left alone in a classroom "naughty corner" with a book during the 35-minute lesson.

"Last year my daughter spent a total of 4.5 days sitting in this corner," said Jeff McClintock

McClintock now takes his daughter Violet out of the classroom corner once a week for a walk while Values in Action is taught.

McClintock and his wife took a stand against the class when as a 5-year-old Violet began asking if she could "meet God".

"We went along to have a look and realised it was run by very devout Christians".

He said although the school asked parents for permission for their children to learn Values in Action, it was not clear until he pressed the previous principal and board of trustees who agreed that it was "religious instruction".

A 2008 Education Review Office report advised the board to clarify exactly what the class was.

Source

• The New Zealand Herald
• Image: Open Parachute