Is corporal punishment allowed in schools in South Africa?
Banned
The South African Schools Act prohibits corporal punishment in schools.
South Africa is one of 41 countries classified “Banned” for corporal punishment in schools — 84% of the 49 with data.
Source
- Taken from
- Wikipedia: School corporal punishment
- Last checked
- 17 September 2026
- How it was classified
- Classified by a language model from the source text, then checked against hand-verified reference countries.
Nearby countries
- Tanzania
- Legal Corporal punishment is authorized by regulation, allowing headmasters to order it with specific limits.
- Sierra Leone
- Legal Corporal punishment is currently legal in Sierra Leonean schools.
- United Arab Emirates
- Banned A 1998 federal law banned corporal punishment in all public and private schools.
- Israel
- Banned Corporal punishment is banned in Israeli schools by court rulings and the Pupils' Rights Law.
- Iran
- Banned Physical punishment for students is forbidden in Iranian schools under executive regulations and protection laws.
- Greece
- Banned Corporal punishment is banned in all Greek schools, with the ban extended to secondary schools in 2005.
Other laws in South Africa
- Death Penalty
- Fully abolished
- Gun Laws
- Restrictive
- Military Conscription
- No conscription
- Jury Trials
- Not used
Every law in South Africa → · Where is corporal punishment in schools legal? →
A visual reference compiled from Wikipedia’s law-by-country articles, not legal advice. Laws change and summaries simplify — check a primary source before relying on anything here.