A school volleyball coach was recorded slapping two of his female teenage players during the 20th Malaysia Youth (Under 14) Volleyball Championship game between Malacca and Johor at a school in Kota Tinggi, Johor recently.
According to Malacca state executive councillor VP Shanmugam, the incident occurred because the coach became too emotional when his team narrowly lost to Johor 2-3 and did not perform as expected.
Apparently, it was the first time Malacca had advanced to the semi-finals.
Shanmugam clarified that the coach has met with the two players and apologised right after the incident, hence “resolving” the issue on the spot. He added that the coach is very dedicated and concerned with his players.
While I cannot fathom how a coach who has assaulted his players can still be categorised as “dedicated and concerned”, I applaud Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek and Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh for expressing great concern following the incident.
Our children have for far too long been exposed to physical abuse at school by teachers wishing to “motivate” or “discipline” them.
Like the volleyball coach, the truth is that these abusive teachers are individuals with anger management issues and have no business educating our children.
They do not belong in school.
Previous cases
There have been many earlier cases where teachers have used physical violence in our schools. The following, as reported in a 2019 study published in the law journal of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), are only the tip of the iceberg:
An 11-year-old student was hit, slapped, and kicked by a teacher for throwing a classmate’s shoe from the third floor of the school building.
A teenager at a vocational school in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, sustained a deep bruise on her thigh after being beaten with a broom handle by her teacher.
A four-year-old girl in Johor Bahru suffered injuries to her ears and back when her kindergarten teacher struck her for not writing neatly.
An eight-year-old student in Kota Kinabalu was hit in the head by a wooden chair thrown by a teacher. The chair was intended for another student who was causing a nuisance in class.
A seven-year-old student was caned by a teacher in Johor Bahru. In order to remove the marks left by the cane, the teacher used a heated wok and scalded his buttocks.
An eight-year-old student in Kuala Lumpur suffered bruises after she was beaten with a ruler and pinched by her teacher who was not happy with her homework.
A student in Kulai, Johor was beaten with a shoe by a disciplinary teacher for talking in class.
A 13-year-old student in Johor Bahru broke three of her fingers when a secondary school teacher hit her.
Causing injury to another person is a crime. All the teachers in the above cases should have been fired and sent to court. Unfortunately, teachers in our beloved Malaysia have a long history of violent behaviour with students which remains unpunished.
Makes me wonder how effective the law is in our country when those who abuse our children seem to get away every single time.
Stop normalising physical abuse
According to the 2019 study, which was on corporal punishment in Malaysian public schools, 47 percent of parents surveyed think physical punishment should be allowed in school while only 20 percent disagreed.
Similarly, more than 80 percent of parents surveyed claimed to use physical punishment at home.
I believe the people who support physical punishment at home are those condoning and enabling teachers to use the same method as behaviour management in school.
These are mostly the people who go around making annoying comments like, “That’s how I was raised and I turned out all right!”
Following that same logic, if you had to suffer physically in order to be disciplined and motivated by your parents and teachers, would you also condone your boss smacking your head every time you didn’t do your job perfectly?
If you do not like your boss smacking your head every time you are late for work or when you talk too much in the office, what makes you think a child would?
Children are people too. So often we do not see them as our equals.
The truth is, disciplining should not be about inflicting physical pain. Disciplining is to teach an individual that certain behaviour is wrong and must not be repeated.
Hitting a child simply teaches them to fear the pain. They stop doing something because of the pain, not because it’s wrong. This is not how discipline works.
When parents and teachers use physical punishment as a tool to control a child’s behaviour, it says a lot about the environment the children grow in.
Power to indoctrinate obedience
Today, thanks to handphones and the internet, video clips of teachers’ abusive behaviour prevent schools and ministries from turning a blind eye. Unfortunately, these cases continue to happen.
Some of the cases are reported and end up catching the media’s attention. Sadly many more go unreported.
In most scenarios, we hear about committees being set up to investigate these incidents - but as the media attention subsides, no one actually follows up with the results.
In some cases, we read about abusive teachers being demoted or transferred. Despite physically abusing children, they rarely lose their jobs and are not certified as unfit to work with children.
School authoritarianism continues to thrive because teachers have become the tools of the power structure to indoctrinate obedience among students.
Teachers know they can freely abuse students. They know students will be submissive to them. And they also know they will not be punished.
This unaccountable system must end.
Under the law, causing physical harm to others is a criminal offence. Teachers who use physical violence must be treated as such.
When an abusive teacher pays for their crimes, the culture of impunity will crumble. Consequently, teacher violence against students will drop.
The Education Ministry must stop boasting about safe school policies and start enforcing the law by punishing those who assault students.
If our government is serious about making school a safe place for our children, then it is time for them to treat bullies as bullies.
It’s time for us to practise a zero-tolerance system regarding physical abuse in school. - Mkini
FA ABDUL is a multi-award-winning playwright and director in the local performing arts scene, a published author, television scriptwriter, media trainer, and mother. Her ultimate mission in life is to live out of a small suitcase.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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