Have our school discipline rules completely failed?

 As an assistant headmaster, I bypassed standard disciplinary regulations and witnessed a dramatic shift in my school’s trajectory with the use of the cane.

From Ravinder Singh

While education minister Fadhlina Sidek accurately stated that school caning was still legally allowed, current disciplinary frameworks are clearly falling short.

The regulations meant to ensure a safe and conducive learning environment have not prevented a severe decline in student behaviour, culminating in tragic instances of fatal school violence.

This crisis raises a critical question: have our existing school discipline rules completely failed?

The road to hell begins with good intentions

The Education (School Discipline) Regulations 1959 of Malaysia governs student discipline and corporal punishment in public schools. The red tape that schools must comply with in using the cane makes caning totally useless.

Only the head teacher or a designated teacher can use the cane, not the class teacher; caning must be done privately; another teacher must be present as a witness; details such as the child’s name, offence, punishment, date and time must be recorded.

As the then assistant headmaster of SK Tunku Abdul Halim in Alor Setar, I witnessed a dramatic shift in our school’s trajectory.

It was the premier primary school in northern Kedah during the 1950s and 1960s, but by 1990, when I took charge, it had become one of the worst. Faced with this crisis, I had two choices: allow the decay to continue or use the cane on my own terms to restore order.

I chose to do it my way, even though it bypassed standard disciplinary regulations. The approach worked, and I want to share that experience here.

Mayhem reigned in this school. Unbearable noise, unsightly litter everywhere, teachers screaming at children, children leaving classrooms and loitering, pushing and shoving at the canteen.

I was in total disbelief when the school head said at a staff meeting that “here we practice democracy”. This was clearly directed at me for controlling the “democracy” that children had been given the freedom to practice and pull the school down into the gutter.

Judicious use of the cane worked a miracle

Having given teachers a set of my own “classroom and child management rules” to be strictly implemented, I started my daily two rounds of corridor walking with a cane in hand for on-the-spot shock-giving to the brain to trigger re-wiring of the bad behaviour connections to good.

Of the 600 plus children in this boys’ school, hardly 10% needed the cure. The rest got the clear message that rules had to be obeyed; their previous “democratic” ways were not acceptable to me.

A light cane is most effective during early childhood, that is in pre-school and primary school, which is the critical habit-forming age. Not every child requires it.

However, for those who do, the physical sting serves as a necessary shock, breaking negative behavioural patterns and prompting them to re-evaluate their actions.

It works the same way that cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) does to shock the heart to start functioning again. Like CPR, the cane must be administered immediately after the event, without delay.

The cane was used only on the palms. One parent confronted me as his Year 3 son had a cane mark on his wrist because the boy had pulled his hand away.

“Do you have the authority to cane children?”

“Yes,” I said, as I told him I would not allow his son to disrupt a class of over 30, running around and pulling other children’s books and pencils while they did their work.

He could take his son to another school if he so wished. The son was soon back in school, a changed person. I set the standard, the parents followed.

On the first school day of the new year, I had a dialogue with the parents in the hall. I reminded them of this school’s excellent status in the 1950s and 1960s, and its shameful status now, all because discipline had not been strictly maintained.

To achieve good academic performance, the prerequisite was good discipline. If teachers had to use the cane to restore discipline, it was for the good of the children.

They gave me unanimous support, and I never had an issue with any of them as long as I was there. Teachers were happy they could conduct lessons with children paying attention.

When I left one and a half years later it took just one week for “democracy” to return to the school. It was heartbreaking that no one could continue maintaining the discipline that I had taken so much trouble to restore within three months of taking charge.

False theories surrounding child disciplining issues

There is not a single study of an actual hands-on use of the cane in real-life situations like I did. All other “studies” are based on the results of wrongful use of the cane.

This is like compiling a list of botched medical surgeries and concluding that surgeries can cause deaths and paralysis and therefore should be banned.

In my own way I proved that a light cane, properly used, is an excellent tool for maintaining discipline in primary school. Then, strict discipline has to be maintained in secondary schools.

The education ministry should not dismiss the “grandfathers’ way” of disciplining children. If schools set the discipline standard, parents will respect it and do their part.

When schools accept indiscipline, parents think that is normal and cannot accept when any teacher disciplines their child.

Get it right — every school must set and enforce strict discipline. Only when schools stop accepting indiscipline will parents take the discipline of their children seriously. - FMT

Ravinder Singh is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT