2007 04: Student Punishment: Teach trainers, not excuse them

NST online. Letters. 27/04/07

By : PREMA E. DEVARAJ, Women’s Centre for Change Penang

THE Women’s Centre for Change, Penang (WCC) is stunned over the recent report of the alleged abuse of 18 students at Institut Kemahiran Belia Negara (IKBN) in Peretak, Selangor.

These students were apparently forced to strip to their underwear and subjected to a four-hour verbal assault by two female instructors for a fellow trainee’s misdeed.

It is shocking that these instructors chose such humiliating practices to deal with a "disciplinary problem". Sadly, this is not the first time we have come across humiliating punishments for disciplinary problems in schools or institutions. Parents entrust their children to the care of educators, i.e. teachers and instructors, in schools and institutions.

Parents trust that their children’s well-being and education will be looked after in a school or institution. It is a violation of this trust when teachers or instructors abuse the very students entrusted into their care. We cannot excuse such abuses when they take place. The IKBN needs to accept responsibility for what happened instead of finding excuses, for example, "breakdown in communication" or "gone a little overboard" or using the nature of the misconduct to justify the approach used ("drinking liquor led to lewd behaviour… we had to do something about it").

Maintaining discipline in schools and institutions is not an easy task. However, it would seem that some teachers or instructors are not equipped with the knowledge or skills to handle disciplinary problems. While appreciating the difficulties and frustrations in maintaining discipline in any school or institution, inflicting pain, fear and/or humiliation to punish students is not a way forward. We cannot condone such acts of abuse or violence. The WCC supports the ongoing investigation by the authorities and we hope that appropriate measures will be taken against the teachers involved should the allegations prove to be true. We recommend that in addition to these appropriate measures, the IKBN and the two teachers involved should apologise to the 18 students. The WCC also calls upon the Education Ministry to provide regular support and training for all educators to allow for a more sensible approach to disciplinary problems in schools or institutions.