While we worry about precious little dears and their class sizes in New Zealand, over in Malaysia they are more concerned about beating some sense into the thickies:
Finally, it needs to be stressed that schools, mainly primary schools, are the place to inculcate good values in children as that is the best time to do so.
The cane was used in schools for a long time, not on everyone, but on the few who had no respect for school rules.
Teachers did it out of love for the children, for they wanted the children to grow up to be well-behaved people, regardless whether they got 10As or 10Fs.
Character development was a core responsibility of schools of the past.
This required principals and teachers to be skilled in child character development, but none seems to have this skill these days, and the lack of political will to arrest the problem of problematic children in the schools does not help.
That schools have abdicated the responsibility of character training is the mother of all tragedies in the area of the development of a nation of educated persons.
A light cane in the hands of a properly-trained person is indispensable in correcting child misbehaviour during the critical formative years.
The education reform that the government is embarking on is meaningless if the core area of a child’s education is not addressed in a way that produces positive results.
Moral Education, an examination subject, has been a big slap in the face of those who introduced it to produce a society with good moral values.
Like Dr Spock, we should have the guts to admit that a grave wrong has been done with the demonising of spanking as a vital medicine to correct child misbehaviour when other methods fail.
What is needed is to train parents and teachers on the proper use of this tool, not the banning of it.
The culprit in child abuse cases is the wielder of the cane, and not the light cane.
By the way, even bare hands can be used to abuse children.
The abuser is the one that needs counselling or psychiatric treatment.
Do we have the political will to make our schools the character- training grounds they were half a decade ago?
No political party has come up with proposals on this issue. Is it not of national importance?
