In a random FMT survey, most of the mothers interviewed expressed concern over the long-term damage corporal punishment could cause.
“When I was young I was pinched and got hit and all that by teachers and it was traumatizing,” said Hasinah Akhir, a 30-year-old mother of one daughter.
“It’s not just about embarrassment in front of your friends. It does things to you and your self-esteem and you end up thinking you’re stupid because that’s what the teacher thinks.”
Aina Wati Shariff, 54, who has four children, agreed with Hasinah, saying that teachers who hit their students made school an unpleasant place.
“When you hit a child, you mess with their emotions,” she said. “They end up becoming afraid of their teachers, and they may end up hating going to school.”
FMT interviewed the mothers following a news report about a mother who was sentenced to jail for slapping her son’s primary school teacher, who had pinched the boy for being too slow.
The mothers were generally of the opinion that teachers should exercise patience when dealing with children. Aina said patience was one of the most important qualities teachers should develop.
“Teachers need to be patient because not all children learn quickly,” she said. “Some need to be taught over and over before they can understand a lesson.
“This just boils down to the teacher’s own education. They need to be taught how to handle students instead of resorting to simply hitting them.”
Thirty-nine-year-old Shamin Bakar, who has six children, agreed that patience was key when it came to being a teacher. She is a teacher herself.
“Teachers are supposed to be patient,” she said. “That’s the most important quality in a teacher. If you can’t be patient or if you hate your job, then bloody quit.
“If a student is slow or is unable to answer a question then that’s the teacher’s failure, not the student’s.
“My sons and my daughters have had their fair share of beatings from teachers. My eldest son was hit on his wrist and my eldest daughter has even been hit on her head, just because they couldn’t answer a few questions.”
Hasinah reminded teachers that education meant more than just getting good grades.
“Teachers are supposed to educate our children and that doesn’t just mean teaching my child Maths or Bahasa, but educating her with proper values. When you hit them, you’re not teaching those proper values.”
Aina suggested that an avenue be made available to parents to tell teachers whether or not they agreed to having their children face corporal punishment in school.
“I feel like there should be a mechanism in place where parents are able to tell the school whether it’s okay or not for the teachers to hit their children.”
Shamin, however, had a harsher suggestion.
“There ought to be a law where if teachers hit our children they get thrown in jail. Only parents should be allowed to touch their kids. The teachers can just keep their hands to themselves.”
One mother, however, said teachers should punish naughty students, with the cane if necessary.
“I feel teachers should be given the right to discipline our children,” said Gayathri Subramaniam. “Kids, especially nowadays, are very hard to control and if my children are doing naughty things in class then I would feel comfortable knowing that there is someone in the classroom who will keep an eye on them.”
Gayathri, who is a 36-year-old mother of two children, said she firmly believed that “if you spare the rod, you spoil the child.”
“I believe that punishing children when they’re naughty and rewarding them when they’re good will teach them how to be responsible for their actions when they become adults.”