By the application of the scientific method it should thus be perfectly possible to ensure that for an equivalent offence a boy in lightweight trousers and a girl in a heavy winter kilt experience exactly the same application of punitive effect if caned by the same teacher.
Of course their perception of the pain of that punitive effect may, and probably will, vary considerably. But unless pupils are hooked up to brain wave measurement equipment and computers to assess when a pre-decreed overall level of pain has been reached, there’s no way round that one, which makes a bit of a mockery of the whole thing! Perhaps we’d best just stick with abolition after all!