The issue of physical punishment is addressed by using student and teacher data obtained through a combined structured and semi-structured interview technique in a study carried out in the Division of Peshawar, North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. An overview of the political, socio-economic and educational situation is presented. It is argued that the current paradigm of education cannot ensure any correlation with economic and social development. In order to make education an effective tool for social and economic change, it needs to be re-conceptualized by moving away from a transmission paradigm towards a paradigm of transformation. One way of bringing about such a shift at the conceptual level is through teacher education programmes, such as the one which led to this study.