Of going overboard : The blaming game...

1. Let me start with this - for reasons best known only to this friend of mine, he thinks that I am a teacher and fondly calls me "cikgu" whenever we meet or talk. I guess I have to respect his intuition but one thing is clear - I am not a teacher :)
2. BUT, eventhough I am not a teacher, aren't we all teachers in our own way? Teachers in real life, that is, and not teachers in close compounds they call school!
3. Now, I am not that happy reading this news today. Let's be clear here, I am not standing up to say what the discipline teacher did was right but let's look at it from a different angle...
4. Why were the students punished in the first place? They were caught skipping the morning assembly with two boys.
   Now, are we saying that it is alright to skip the morning assembly? There must be good reasons for the prefects to bring the case to the discipline teacher's attention. So, can we say that these students (including the two boys) are guilty of skipping the morning assembly?
   
5. After they were caught, they were alledgedly "molested" by this discipline teacher. Fine but think about this - there are 11 students there. Do you mean that these 11 students "allow" for the molestation to take place right infront of their eyes?
   And where are these two macho boys who, I presume, lead the "let's skip the morning assembly" thingy? What are they doing when this "suppose molestation" took place? Don't tell me from mighty tigers, they became as timid as mices?
   
6. Yes, agreed that the discipline teacher may have gone overboard with his disciplinary actions. this, in itself is the slack of the system. Where did this happen? In the teachers room? Or in the classroom?
   
7. Is putting the discipline teacher in the dock the correct move? Think this way - will it not be a pat to these deliquent students as if skipping the morning assembly pays. No one and I mean noone can do anything if they choose to play truant. Is that the message we are giving to our school-going kids? Are we teaching them the wrong way? Are we encouraging them to defy school rulews and regulations?
8. There is a better solution than this. I am not defending the wrong that the discipline teacher did but I am saying there are better soltion, if and only if this issue is not politicised. Alas, the Teratai assembly person has make the police report and I am sure that this assembly person loves to see the discipline teacher jailed for his "misbehaviour". But is that the best solution?
9. Instead, to me, these students should pay a heavier price for their decision to skip the morning assembly. These are the elements that may plant bad influence to our school-going children. Do something wrong and along the way get your hated (normally discipline teachers are hated/avoided by the students) out of the way.
10. I call for these students to be served severe punishment. Suspend them or better still sack them from that school! Schools are not breeding grounds for indiscipline students. When you are in schoold, by all means follow the regulations. That's it,no buts, no ifs ....
11. But then again, can we blame them? When "kepimpinan melalui tauladan" leader comes out with his statement that election goodies are not bribes. There will come a day when these problematic students will retort "we do no wrong, we follow Muhyiddin..."
12. You get my drift? When the EC director is unsure what is termed election bribery, Muhyiddin comes out teaching the EC director that election goodies are not bribes... if this is the way our Minister of Education acts, then I guess our education system is going down the drains soon...

Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are...