The Malaysian Insight

THE rule these days in school is to “spare the rod” as teachers as well as their young charges are increasingly better informed on the rights of children and what is acceptable in a modern society.

Corporal punishment is a thing of the past in Malaysian classrooms, with only a small number of senior teachers allowed to wield the cane on errant schoolchildren, and even then only on the boys and only for a handful of offences.
 
Generally, if teachers do cane or punish their students, they face the risk of being punished themselves if the parents complain. They could even be sued by the parents

Recently, a secondary schoolgirl in Johor Baru was caned by her teacher after she called him “pondan”, leaving welts on her arms and legs. Her parents lodged a police report.

Besides the police, the Education Ministry is also investigating the incident, sparking a debate on whether the teacher was justified in punishing the girl with a cane.

Photos of marks on her hands and a video of the girl’s mother berating the teacher have also gone viral.

Teachers told The Malaysian Insight that the incident in Johor Baru should not have happened, admitting that the teacher in the case might have gone overboard and could well be disciplined himself.

However, they also said the teacher must have had his reasons for losing his temper and caning the girl.

Lim, a teacher in a Chinese primary school in Selangor, said even though he does not have all the facts of the case, he believes that the Johor Baru teacher had been patient for a long time but snapped when the student touched a raw nerve.

“Of course, the one who strikes first is in the wrong. The teacher could have calmed himself down, recorded the student’s behaviour as proof and brought it to the higher-ups. That might have been the more appropriate step to take,” said Lim, who did not want his full name published. 

Lim said he also canes disobedient students but only on their palms and arms, and he takes into account the severity of the  wrongdoing.

“The purpose of corporal punishment is deterrence, so students will understand that their offences are unacceptable and should not be repeated. If applied in proportion to the nature of the offence, it is effective.

Lim said teachers also had the options of giving the young offender a public admonition or referring him or her to student affairs for the administration to take care of the matter.

A private school teacher in Kuala Lumpur, Ng, meanwhile said it was unlikely that the teacher in the Johor Baru case had snapped over a single incident.

He said it is more likely that the student had been reprimanded many times before but to no effect.
 
“That’s not to say that the student is to blame; the responsibility is on the teacher as the Education Ministry has issued a strict directive that corporal punishment cannot be applied on girls. Even for boys, corporal punishment can only be applied in certain cases,” he said.

Ng said corporal punishment is often not received with a clear understanding of why it is meted out, leaving the students are agitated and confused as to why they have been punished.

On the Johor Baru case, Ng said it was possible the student did not realise the import of her insult.

“Most of the time, students tend to use vulgar language in school without fully understanding the meaning of the words. Students may think the words are cool and fail to realise that they could humiliate or offend the teachers. 

Teaching is an increasingly difficult job due to restrictions from the school boards and increasing pressure from the parents, leading to apathy among some teachers, who choose to ignore the youngsters’ transgressions and do nothing to correct them

Ng said teachers are stuck between a rock and a hard place and that some have lost motivation and are treating their work as “just a job”.

As long as it is not within their scope of duties, they will not bother to guide the students, leading to a negative learning environment, he said.

Ng said students’ bad behaviour often has its roots in the home.

“For example, the case in Johor Baru, the student very disrespectfully called the teacher a ‘pondan’. It was reported that even the mother thinks the teacher is a ‘pondan’, so it shows that on the family’s side, there is already a lack of respect.” – June 27, 2019.