Caning in schools is not a new phenomenon. Over the past decades caning has been the go-to method to instill discipline in students. Especially among the Tamil community, it is nothing new for parents of the past to tell teachers to cane their kids should they misbehave and refuse to learn. நல்லா அடிச்சு சொல்லி கொடுங்க, ஆனா கண்ணு மட்டும் பாத்துக்குங்க (don’t spare the rod in their education teacher, just spare their eyes) is not a new dialouge among us.

However times have changed, as parents have begun noticing the adverse effects of physical correction that may lead to violence and abuse.

Ex-deputy Education Minister, Dato Kamalanathan in a press statement released in 2017, said teachers should not use corporal punishment on their students, even those with serious disciplinary problems as the old method of punishing through physical means was no longer applicable today.

“A teacher cannot cause harm or hurt a pupil, to me that is the main rule, no matter what reason, you cannot lay your hands on a child, if you have a problematic kid, there are always counseling sessions, there are always parents, talk to them.
“If the child has serious discipline problems, call the parents to the school, explain to them, work together with the parents,” he said.

In recent events, some videos revolving around this issue has been circulating on social media with no resolution in sight.

We had award winning ex-PIBG YDP of SJKT Serdang Selangor, Tamil Selvan Thirumalai , share his experience-based opinion and shed some unbiased light on the matter. The following are his thoughts.

1)    If the teacher mildly corrects/ punishes a child, the issue at hand wouldn’t get blown out of proportion. From my experience, physical correction tends to be a significant blow to the parents (when there is bruising/ swelling on their child due to the punishment dished out) as well as the child involved especially in cases where parents get riled up enough to turn up at the school. 

2)    Parents innately feel guilty and remorseful should they resort to physically punishing their young. Expecting them to display no displeasure should a third person commit the act is unfair to them as it is emotionally and psychologically traumatizing for them as they would feel like they have failed in protecting their child.

3) Parents should never present their case to the school alone and unrepresented. This is unfavorable to the parents. Schools are usually well aware of caning incidents that get out of hand and would be anticipating the parents’ impending visit. The government has already devised an SOP as to who should deal with parental conflict issues in any school (Students Affair Teacher, Counseling Teacher). 

These people generally are expected to have a pre-established understanding of the socio-educational background that the parent hails from to better understand and communicate with the parent. They must take the initiative to do a background check on the child’s parental environment before handling any issues pertaining to the child. Each parent will have different characteristics and temperaments, thus requiring someone well trained to deal with such variations.

The PIBG association should send a representative to accompany the distraught parent so that they are not vulnerable and cornered when presenting his or her grouses.

4) When resolving an issue, the school should allocate a room with proper reconciliation aura or surrounding. Schools should also develop an SOP to adhere to in such situations that stresses on no involvement of recording devices.

5) We need to stop reminiscing to our golden ages when we were physically disciplined. Times have changed and along with it the extent of discipline dished out. We are dealing with generation Z and our outdated practices do not apply. 
We should use technology to further augment our ability to nurture our children instead of using it to further mortify the child and parent involved in such cases that go viral.

6) Both the school and PIBG should resolve to solve issues without violence or extremism.

7) Correction should always serve a purpose.  If all the student takes away from it is a sour experience and no lesson learnt, the correction did not serve a purpose. So always resort to methods that will yield results.

8) Teachers should not use their working hours to browse the net or for social media interactions if it doesn’t serve a purpose to their lesson plan. Teachers who are found to continue such practices should be penalized accordingly, especially when they get physically violent with their students instead of guiding them should the student not understand the lesson.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned with RAAGA.

Source: Geeta