Final act: Minister moves to ban corporal punishment in all schools. Picture: The West Australian

Education Minister Peter Collier is seeking to bring the era of corporal punishment in schools to a close.

A loophole has allowed private schools in WA to use the cane and other physical discipline methods, even though public and Catholic schools stopped using corporal punishment almost 30 years ago.

Caning was later banned from public schools under the School Education Act of 1999 but it did not extend to private schools.

In a letter to Association of Independent Schools of WA executive director Valerie Gould, Mr Collier signalled that he would change school registration requirements early this year to make corporal punishment an "impermissible form of discipline" in non-government schools.

The letter, sent on Christmas Eve, said a national focus on prevention of child abuse prompted by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was one of the reasons behind the decision.

Mr Collier told _The West Australian _that in the past there had been a reluctance to interfere in punishment methods that independent schools felt were appropriate.

But corporal punishment had now fallen out of public favour to the point where just one school was using it.

"This shows the overwhelming majority of parents don't want it," Mr Collier said.

"WA has moved on from this form of discipline and the time has come for physical punishment in schools to end."

Ms Gould said independent schools would comply with any new regulations for registration.

Pastor Roger Monasmith, principal of Nollamara Christian Academy - the last school in the State to punish students physically - said he used a paddle rather than a cane.

"We will continue on until they say, 'No, you can't'," he said. "When you give these children a paddle, you do it in the right way.

"You always have someone there to observe with you, so it's not overbearing, and you always give them a good talking to before you ever do it, and you give them a time of prayer as well."

Mr Monasmith said societal problems had increased since schools stopped using physical punishment and because parents were discouraged from spanking their children.

He said the paddle was not used often in the school, which has about 25 pupils from Year 1 to 12.