Forum Letter Replies
Discipline is Key
We refer to the letter by Mr Ho Kong Loon (“Where’s the discipline?”, Aug 12).
MOE is committed to high standards of discipline in our schools and will take the necessary measures to ensure that schools are safe and conducive learning environments for all our students. We believe that an orderly classroom environment, marked by respect for teachers and peers, is necessary for learning to take place.
MOE does not condone any display of disrespect by our students towards their teachers and considers this behaviour as a serious disciplinary offence. There are clear guidelines for principals to manage such misbehaviour. Based on these guidelines, schools decide on the approach to manage this misbehaviour, taking into consideration the student’s profile, as well as any underlying medical or psychological condition of the student.
Where necessary, schools will impose severe disciplinary measures, including corporal punishment and suspension. Such an approach is also adopted when students commit other serious offences or break school rules. MOE will support measures taken by schools within our guidelines to uphold high standards of discipline in schools.
MOE and our schools value parents as partners in managing student misbehaviour. Parents are ultimately the primary care-givers, and play a critical role in managing their children’s behaviours. Schools will continue to engage parents to nurture and develop students with a sound moral compass.
Director, Schools
Ministry of Education
Where’s the discipline? — Too often, school leaders’ hands are tied when dealing with errant students (Ho Kong Loon, Today Voices, 12/8, p12)
Pupil misconduct in schools has been reported regularly in the local mainstream media. An incident last month in which a female student attacked a female teacher who tried to stop the 14-year-old from disrupting her lesson should be a wake-up call to everyone who is concerned about the declining state of discipline in our schools.
The Ministry of Education must empower principals to deal firmly and resolutely with errant pupils, in particular those who break school rules with impunity, abuse their teachers, inflict harm on schoolmates, defy the school authorities, and so on.
The causes of declining discipline in our schools are multifaceted.
Better educated and more liberal parents frown on disciplinary tools like detention class, writing of lines, litter-picking duties or corporal punishment, which they deem cruel or demeaning. Meanwhile, hyperactive, irrepressible children defy teachers with impunity, while teachers handle their charges gingerly to avoid complaints from over-protective and demanding parents. School heads fear parental fury and hence ban caning and scolding.
Many children are left in the care of maids, grandparents or childcare centres for several hours a day. Busy and harried parents tend to overcompensate and needlessly protect their children, disregarding or neglecting the inculcation of good values during the child’s formative years.
The list goes on.
I taught academically weak pupils from 1965 until my retirement in 2004. I did not encounter any serious disciplinary issues even with the pupils in the Basic Course, Monolingual classes or EM3 stream.
Back then, most parents supported the teachers when their children were disciplined for poor conduct.
Parents should work with the teachers, learning to appreciate one another’s viewpoints and developing a cooperative relationship for the children’s own good.
The time to act is right now. Pussyfooting over issues of serious misconduct by schoolchildren encourages and emboldens the recalcitrant to be more reckless and defiant. It is better to deal firmly with errant children as early as possible.
Wringing hands in despair, bemoaning the wasted opportunities to educate and correct children during their formative years, blaming others for the children’s misdeeds - all this would be too late once the children have become uncontrollable young adults.