2007 05: Editorial: Under the carpet

NST online. Columns. 25/05/07

THE number of students who have been expelled, suspended or caned has declined.

So has the number of school bullies. This good dose of hard data should lend credence to the assertion by Deputy Education Minister Datuk Noh Omar that "indiscipline is not a serious problem in schools". But whether it be the number of children with cavities or ceilings with cracks, ours is a nation where some estimates, especially of the undesirable kind, have been less than accurate and useful due to under-reporting. Pressured by various quarters, some officials have been tempted to massage their findings. This appears to be the case in the matter of the six secondary school principals who are being investigated because of their attempts to sweep under the carpet incidents of bad behaviour among their students.

This is not in itself a revelation. In the past, there have been allegations that school heads had deliberately played down problems in their schools to protect their reputations and prospects for promotion. What is new, however, is that the Ministry of Education seems no longer prepared to close one eye to attempts to blank out damaging information about student indiscipline. The steps taken by the ministry to hold school administrators accountable for deliberately withholding information is most reassuring. It is only appropriate that disciplinary action should be taken against those school heads who try to hide the truth. Those who fudge and prevaricate should not be allowed to prosper in their careers.

Ignorance is not bliss. Covering up the bad behaviour of a section of the student population to preserve the good image of a school is at best foolish. But when a wall of silence is erected to make school heads look good and enhance their own personal ambitions, such self-serving behaviour amounts to cheating and is nothing less than disgraceful. It is also potentially dangerous and can do great harm to the efforts to tackle bad behaviour in schools. In February, Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein pointed to the "many bullying and disciplinary cases of late". One such incident had led to the death of a student in Sarawak early in the year. This paints a less than comforting contrast to the statistical drop in the number of disciplinary cases. It suggests that there has not been a decline at every school. While it is true that most schools are fairly safe, there is every reason to guard against complacency.