<P> Corporal punishment was first explicitly prohibited in schools in article 67 of the Law on Public Schools 1929, passed in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, of which Serbia was then a part . Other now independent countries which belonged to Yugoslavia then and to which the 1929 Law applied are: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Slovenia . In Serbia, corporal punishment in schools is now unlawful under the Law on Secondary Schools 1992, the Law on Elementary Schools 1992 and the Law on the Foundations of Education and Upbringing 2003 / 2009 . </P> <P> Corporal punishment is legal in Singapore schools (for male students only, it is illegal to inflict it on female students) and fully encouraged by the government in order to maintain strict discipline . Only a light rattan cane may be used . This must be administered in a formal ceremony by the school management after due deliberation, not by classroom teachers . Most secondary schools (whether independent, autonomous or government - controlled), and also some primary schools, use caning to deal with misconduct by boys . At the secondary level, the rattan strokes are nearly always delivered to the student's clothed buttocks . The Ministry of Education has stipulated a maximum of six strokes per occasion . In some cases the punishment is carried out in front of the rest of the school instead of in private . </P> <P> The use of corporal punishment in schools was prohibited by the South African Schools Act, 1996 . According to section 10 of the act: </P> <P> (1) No person may administer corporal punishment at a school to a learner . </P>

When did they stop using the belt in schools