2007 07: Ministry to probe squatting incident

The Star Online. News. Nation. Sunday July 22, 2007

KOTA KINABALU: The Education Ministry will carry out a thorough investigation into a claim that 200 girl boarders in Sarawak were forced into a fish pond as punishment because one of them left a sanitary towel in a toilet bowl.

Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said an investigation was under way to establish what actually happened.

It was reported that the girls from a secondary school in Sibu were forced to squat in the murky fish pond for an hour.

The Form One to Form Five students were allegedly forced into the pond inside the school compound from 4pm on Wednesday by a woman warden.

The warden watched over them with an umbrella as it was raining.

“We do not want to point fingers at anyone now but we will take action against those who are wrong,” Hishammuddin told reporters after attending the convocation of 500 teachers at the Teachers Training Institute here yesterday.

In Kuching, Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Fatimah Abdullah said the case should be brought to the school’s disciplinary board and a report handed over to the state education department.

Fatimah said any punishment meted out must be in accordance with the school’s rules and regulations.

“But I’m sure the punishment for those caught throwing a sanitary pad into the toilet bowl is not asking them to squat in a pond.”

The school's parent-teacher association chairman Jimmy Kiu who runs the school canteen, witnessed the incident and contacted a local daily to expose the incident.

Describing the punishment as “harsh”, Kiu said he would speak to the parents before deciding on the next course of action.

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FISH POND PUNISHMENT: Teacher should be sacked, says ex-DG

NST Online. Newsbreak. 23/7/07

Former education director-general Tan Sri Murad Mohd Nor has urged for the immediate sacking of a teacher in Sarawak who forced about 200 female students into a fish pond as a punishment last week.

The English teacher, who is also a hostel warden, had no right to mete out such punishment because as a warden she was supposed to protect and assist the students besides being a substitute parent while they were at the hostel, he said.

“The parents entrusted her to protect their children. Instead, they were abused for an offence they may not have committed,” he said and added that it did not mean that students were immune from punishments.

If they were proven guilty, only the headmaster and disciplinary teacher could mete out punishments on them and the punishment should be within the rule and not excessive, he said.

It was reported that in the Wednesday’s incident, the teacher ordered the girl boarders to stay in a murky fishpond inside the school compound for an hour because one of them dumped a sanitary pad into a toilet bowl.

Murad said teachers should be rational in disciplining students so as not to go against the rules set out by the government.

“We are in an educational institution not a prison. Therefore, teachers are bound by regulations in carrying out punishments,” he said.

He also advised teachers to adopt the correct approach in dealing with indiscipline among students and practise what they had learnt when undergoing the teaching course.

“If we educate the students in a violent way, the students will be violent. And don’t be too enthusiastic with discipline,” he said.

He said teachers should use a good manners approach, be compromising, instill care and love values, and not to follow extreme emotions when educating students.

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Teacher shows courage in pond punishment

The Star Online. Opinion. Tuesday July 24, 2007

I REFER to “Fish pond punishment” (The Star, July 23) and as a parent of schoolgoing kids, I salute Ms Wee Yim Pien for her outstanding courage and sense of common decency in meting out punishment to the schoolgirls as reported.

To state my own experience, I have transferred my youngest son from his school last year because of the inability of his headmistress and teachers to maintain discipline in school.

To the PTA chairman, Jimmy Kiu, my advice is not to bark up the wrong tree. Leave Wee alone and run an education programme on his school’s kids on personal health and hygiene.

I have a school-going daughter who gets regular lectures from me on where to throw her sanitary pads. If I so much as know that she throws them into any toilet, be it at home, or school, or any public toilet, I would hit the roof.

To the parents of the girls who have committed this mistake, especially the mothers, grow up! My bottom line always is, if you do not have the maturity to bring up your kids, then do not have sex.

If you must indulge in the latter, then be ready to face up to the responsibility of bringing up a decent kid who will grow up into a decent adult with a family of his own to nurture.

I wish to add that I pray that every school has teachers like Wee because our children spend at least five hours in school every school day.

And finally, to Wee, May God Bless you and Keep You Safe.

PUTEN JERINEH RAMLI
Petaling Jaya, Selangor

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Teacher in 'pond squat' case not suspended

The Star Online. Nation. News. Wednesday July 25, 2007

KUCHING: The SMK Bawang Assan warden who forced 200 schoolgirls to squat in a pond as a form of punishment is not under suspension.

State education director Rabiah Johari clarified that Wee Yim Pien, also the school’s English teacher, had not gone on leave as reported.

"She is not on leave, she is back teaching at the school," she told reporters after receiving anti-bullying posters for schools. "A police report has not been lodged."

Rabiah said the department was still investigating the incident and would only decide on the next course of action when the probe was completed.

She said officers from the department were sent to Sibu on Tuesday to assist the divisional education office in the investigation.

"For disciplinary cases involving teachers, we have certain procedures which we will follow in deciding what action to take," she added.

She said the department did not condone what Wee had done but pointed out that teachers needed to take disciplinary action against errant students.

"We don’t want teachers to not discipline students as this will lead to social problems. In a case like this, we do not look only at the teacher’s actions but also whether she was feeling pressured or stressed.

"After all, according to reports she had been trying for three years to get the students to dispose sanitary pads properly and not clog the toilets," she said.

"So maybe she felt stressed by the situation," she said, adding that the department had given Wee some counselling.

Meanwhile the Federation of Sarawak Teachers’ Unions said issues involving school discipline should be left to the proper authorities to resolve.

It also recommended that the disciplinary guidelines for teachers, set out in 1959, be reviewed and updated to suit current conditions.

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There are limits to punishment

The Star Online. Opinion. Wednesday July 25, 2007

I CAN’T agree with the letter “Teacher shows courage in pond punishment” (The Star, July 24)
In meting out punishment on kids we must be practical and pragmatic. After all, they are children. Could the teacher have not acted a bit wiser here?

Wrongs must be punished, but to kill an ant you do not use a brick, a pebble would do.

To me any punishment must not be humiliating or capable of destroying one’s self- esteem.

BULBIR SINGH
Seremban

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Pond squat issue: Settled, all is forgiven

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

KUCHING: The dust has settled over the infamous "pond squat" issue and SMK Bawang Assan school warden Wee Yim Pien has been forgiven.

She has also apologised to the families for forcing some 170 girl boarders into a fishpond last week.

Wee, 27, who is also the schools' English teacher, with a Master's degree, had meted out the punishment over repeated dumping of sanitary pads in the school's toilet bowls.

The school’s parent-teacher association chairman Jimmy Kiu said: "Everybody has forgiven her."

He added that the parents and the students wanted the teacher to stay.

"We do not want the students to suffer as the PMR examination is coming.

“The incident is settled in good faith.It is hoped that there is no more a repetition,” Kiu said in a telephone interview on Thursday.

This followed a meeting attended by Kiu, Wee, school principal Kandon Ngadi, Sibu divisional education officer Charles Tiong. parents and Deputy Education Minister Datuk Noh Omar’s special representative Shashim Shah on Wednesday.

An emotional Wee was seen hugging some of the parents and shook hands with others as the episode came to an end.

Kiu said it would be up to the state Education Department to decide whether action should be taken against Wee.

Shashim said the department’s report on the investigation into the incident had been sumbitted to the Education Ministry, which would decide if any action would be taken against Wee.

Asked if Wee would continue as the warden, Kiu declined to comment, saying that this was the school’s administrative matter. The school has more than 500 students, including some 300 borders.

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Teacher in ‘pond squat’ case not suspended

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

KUCHING: The SMK Bawang Assan warden who forced 200 schoolgirls to squat in a pond as a form of punishment is not under suspension.

State education director Rabiah Johari clarified that Wee Yim Pien, also the school’s English teacher, had not gone on leave as reported.

“She is back teaching at the school,” she told reporters after receiving anti-bullying posters for schools.

“A police report has not been lodged.”

Rabiah said the department would decide on the next course of action when the probe was completed.

She said the department did not condone what Wee had done but pointed out that teachers needed to take disciplinary action against errant students.

“We don’t want teachers to not discipline students as this will lead to social problems. In a case like this, we do not look only at the teacher’s actions but also whether she was feeling pressured or stressed.

“After all, according to reports she had been trying for three years to get the students to dispose sanitary pads properly and not clog the toilets,” she said.

The Sarawak Teachers Union (STU) has come out in support of its members accused of meting out harsh punishment on students.

Its president William Gani Bina noted that teachers and school heads were helpless as they could not reply to the accusations thrown at them in public.

“No teacher or school head who is in the right frame of mind would mete out excessive punishments,” he said adding that student indiscipline was on the rise.

He said there were an increasing number of students who have total disregard for school authority, and disobeying orders and directives.

Meanwhile the school’s parent-teacher association chairman Jimmy Kiu said Wee had apologised to the parents in a meeting yesterday.

Following the apology, he said the parents withdrew their demand for Wee to be transferred out.

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Many have benefited from corporal punishment

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

I FULLY agree with Puten Jerinah Ramli (“Teacher shows courage in pond punishment” – The Star, July 24).

I also empathise with the headmistress of SK Gayang in Tuaran, too; she has been suspended for slapping some students.

I am glad I was not tarred and feathered for slapping students for misbehaving or for not doing their work when I taught at a kampung school, a fishing town school or two premier city schools.
The principals of the four schools where I taught were strict disciplinarians and supported me to the hilt.

The principals of the premier city schools were known throughout the country as good administrators and great disciplinarians. They were eventually promoted to state chief education officers, and always backed teachers fully where corporal punishment was concerned.
Students caught playing truant at the kampung school were rounded up by the principal and taken to help old farmers till their padi fields. I used to have fishermen-parents coming to thank me for disciplining their children.

Students at the premier city schools who gave problems found themselves doing circuit training on the sports field.

I am gratified to know that so many of my students from the different schools have done well.

Some of them hold top positions in the public and private sectors in our country, in Singapore, in the UK, Europe and Australia.

We still meet at alumni gatherings, laughing and reminiscing at the whiplash of my right hand of years gone by!

One of them, the CEO of a multi-national company, will tell everyone that the sting of my five fingers on his cheek was the catalyst that woke him up to work hard and be what he is today!

B.S. TEOH,
Ipoh, Perak.

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Let the teacher do her job

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

I FULLY support what Puten Jerineh Ramli wrote in her letter regarding the fish pond punishment incident (The Star, July 24).

When I was in school and the toilets were jammed up or misused, classes of students had to take turns to stay in the toilets for at least 10 minutes as punishment.

I resented the discipline then but now being a mother, I have taught my children well. They will not mess up toilets, throw things out of the car and, in general, they care for and respect public amenities.

These days, parents treat their children like precious little princes and princesses. In public places, they are allowed to run wild and mess around even with things on display.

I have seen young children shouting at their maids even in the parents’ presence and get away without reprimand. I have seen maids putting shoes on schoolgoing children who seem quite capable of doing it on their own!

So, instead of picking on a teacher who’s trying to do something to instil discipline, let her do her job and retain her respect.

Children have to learn to respect those in authority early in life. If they don’t respect their teachers now, they will have no respect for others in authority later on in life.

JEANNETTE L. TAI,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

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Their mistake, so they must be punished

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

AS a student, I strongly agree with the warden’s decision to punish the schoolgirls. They have to realise that it was their mistake, and therefore deserved to be punished.

Students should respect teachers as figures of authorities, because whatever a teacher does is for the benefit of the students.

As for parents, they should understand the reason behind the punishments. If parents continue to spoil their children, what is the point of having teachers to educate students?

CONCERNED STUDENT,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor.