EDITORIAL : THE NEW STRAITS TIMES, MALAYSIA

Weeding out the weak

TEACHING is not a job for the unqualified or unprepared. It takes strong character not only to impart knowledge to young minds, but to do so in a way that understands and acknowledges the abilities and needs of each student, and inspires the majority of students to live up to, and go beyond, their potential. The challenges are great: long hours, unwelcome and non-negotiable transfers to far-off places, a demanding clientele and overcrowded classrooms are but just the basic trials a teacher has to go through. Punctured tyres, scratched automobile paintwork, broken noses and even death threats are sometimes how less-appreciative students express themselves to their teachers.

Yet, being strong should never be mistaken for being a bully. Good teachers are not those who wield fear and pain as enticement for their students to do well or be good. To be an educator, a surrogate-parent, and a psychologist to boot, seems like a job for which no sane person would enlist; and yet, more than 320,000 people in this country are teachers.

Whatever the intentions of the 26-year-old teacher who allegedly caused the death of 7-year-old Saiful Syazani Saiful Sopfidee and whether he was conscious of the consequences of his actions is for the police and courts to decide. But if the accusations against him are proven, it would not be an exaggeration to say that he was an abysmal failure as a teacher and should not have been admitted to the vocation in the first place. There are procedures for how to discipline students, and these are in place precisely to prevent the arbitrary meting out of inappropriate punishment. In government schools, for instance, caning can be done only by the disciplinary teacher, using a cane of prescribed length and thickness, and, in whipping the student, the teacher has to place an exercise book under his armpit; if the book falls, the teacher has raised the cane too high.

At the moment, the selection and appointment of teachers in private schools such as that which Saiful attended is not regulated by the Education Ministry. So there is nothing to ensure that teachers in these schools have undergone psychological evaluation, or have child and adolescent psychology training to handle their charges properly, or procedures for how to discipline children of varying ages. Teachers who inflict great harm on students are hopefully an aberration of society. But more should be done to ensure that it stays that way.