A learning curve with schoolkids

A boy snaps in class, saying he comes to school only to see his girlfriend; and teachers face action for scolding a girl. It’s tough to be an educator these days.

ONCE upon a time, I wanted to be a teacher. In fact, I was – I conducted tuition classes for a bunch of kids and even taught Sunday school at a church.

But I am glad I did not become one full-time. Sure, it’s nice to be a teacher when students who make it good come back and say thank you. Teachers talk about the warm glow that such encounters bring.

But forget warm glows; ­teachers today have to walk on burning embers. It’s damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

A couple of videos that went viral over the last week or so tell the story.

In one, a few teachers can be seen scolding a nine-year-old child for a mistake she apparently made. It is claimed that they were trying to force a confession out of her.

The girl’s mother is furious; the Education Minister has ordered an investigation and police have started their own investigations.

We have little idea what the teachers did, but they could face jail terms of up to 20 years under the Child Act, and a fine of up to RM50,000 if found guilty. Who wants to be a teacher if that is what scolding a child brings?

Then, there was another video where a boy dared his teacher to expel him.

The only reason he was in school, he says, was to see his girlfriend.

“Nak buang, okay je, buang lah (if you want to expel me, it’s okay, just expel),” he says with petulant arrogance.

I was enraged, to say the least. Many others were also angry and criticised the boy’s parents over his upbringing. But there was no need to blame the parents, especially when we don’t know the background.

Many of these problem children are from broken families, and their parents are probably poverty-stricken or, worse, drug addicts or criminals themselves.

The boy himself has since admitted that his friends have been a bad influence on him. A fatherless child, he says he has learnt his lesson and just wanted to study.

He claims his teacher had scolded him over not having his books, and over a love affair he had had, and he snapped.

Teachers have their own problems. When they discipline children, they get recorded on cell phones and end up facing police investigations. When they don’t, the kids turn out to be losers, or even gangsters.

It’s a no-win situation.

The education system really needs a relook. It was much ­easier when disciplinary teachers walked around classrooms, cane in hand.

Today, the punitive approach does not seem to work. In fact, it is not allowed.

And it does not help when the Education Minister tells teachers: “If you touch, you go.”

She meant teachers who are sex offenders, but many now just refuse to touch the kids for any reason, and the children only get more emboldened.

Of course, there is another reason why teachers will not stand up to students. Many of these kids have links to drug dealers and gangs who recruit them when they are still young. It is a known fact that gangs are to be found in many of our schools.

These gangs don’t just rope the children into drug-dealing and theft, they also encourage them to rebel and even resort to violence.

Bullying in schools is also rampant with close to 80% of students having experienced it in one manner or another.

With punitive action not allowed, rehabilitation has to be the answer.

Maybe the government should have Biro Tatanegara type ­courses for students. It would be far more useful than the previous BTN scheme, which was said to have been used to promote supremacism among civil servants.

The Henry Gurney School is also an option. Here, they are not only taught regular school subjects but also given religious education and guidance, all in a strict disciplinary environment.

Students also take part in counselling and support programmes.

We have five such schools but only two are in the peninsula, one of them exclusively for girls. We should have more such schools on both sides of the South China Sea. And more should be sent there.

We could then use the Prison Department’s module. There are many hardcore prisoners in there, yet there are also many who also got an education behind bars.

Many have done their SPM – and passed with flying colours – and also finished diplomas, first degrees, and some even reaching master’s and PhD levels. The Prison Department must be doing something right.

According to a friend, education in prison is an escape from hard labour. Those who study are not put into work gangs or made to do other prison chores. They get an easier life within the walls – and it also helps when they leave prison.

If there is one thing I have learnt, it is that this problem among schoolchildren is especially rampant in the Indian community. And that’s quite sad.

My ex-prison buddy tells me of two Indian men he now works with – one of them is 41 and has been to prison 23 times; the other is 45 and has been jailed 15 times.

Even at this age, they are still on parole. These are not the men we want our children to grow up and become.

It could be because of poverty or parental apathy that many ­parents don’t care at all about their children’s education, but the community needs a rethink, and a leg up, whether from the govern­ment or community members who care.

And then, there’s that other dilemma for the community.

While we have those who don’t give a hoot for education on one hand, there are also so many crying that they are unable to get places in institutions of higher education, even with good results.

When kids who do well in their studies end up in tears, is it worth all the effort?

I just really feel sorry for the teachers – and those kids without tertiary places. Over to you, Madam Education Minister.