2007 07: Education Ministry goes on the road to talk about school discipline

The Star Online. News. Nation. Thursday July 26, 2007

PENANG: The Education Ministry is touring the country to tell teachers that it supports their action against delinquent students.

However, said Deputy Minister Datuk Noh Omar, the ministry has made it known it will not condone any punishment that is excessive and not in line with stipulated guidelines.

“I have covered all schools in Selangor since the roadshow started about a week ago,” he told reporters after opening the Fifth International Conference on Literacy (Litcon 2007) here yesterday.

“I am gathering feedback on what to amend in the Discipline Regulations (Students) 1957,” he said, commenting on the recent spate of disciplinary issues in the country.

The latest involved a primary school headmistress in Kota Kinabalu, who has been suspended for two months following complaints that she slapped 22 pupils for failing to turn in their homework on July 18.

In Sibu, a school warden made 200 girl boarders squat in a pond after the school's toilet bowls were repeatedly clogged with sanitary pads.

Noh said the ministry's two-month tour was to give an assurance to school heads that it supported their actions provided the punishments were within the guidelines.

He said there had been proposals that corporal punishment be decided by school disciplinary boards, instead of the school heads, as provided for in current regulations.

“There is a clause on caning but it does not state how it should be carried out.

“We will come up with more specifications, such as the maximum number of strokes allowed,'' he said, adding that the amendments to the regulations would be gazetted later this year.

Noh said the ministry did not want teachers to be demoralised as it could lead them to stop disciplining their students.

“However, we also don't want to lose public confidence if punishments are too harsh,” he explained.

He added: “In most incidents, it is the teachers' commitment to discipline that puts them in a bad light.”

“We don't want this commitment to die but the efforts must be in accordance with our guidelines,” he said.

On the expulsion of 15 Mara Junior Science College students in Negri Sembilan over the ragging of their juniors on June 17, Noh said they would have to go through a motivation course before they would be allowed to enrol again in mainstream schools.