APRIL 24 ― Right now in a Johor Baru hospital, there is an 11 year old boy who has just come out of an emergency surgery performed to save his life. This religious school student will never walk on his own legs again. They had to be amputated below the knee after the limbs were found to have turned necrotic as a result of extensive tissue damage. He is now in a coma and fighting for his life. Parts of his right arm have also blackened.
Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.
How did it come to this? Ongoing investigations have discovered that three weeks ago, the assistant warden of the religious school had administered some form of disciplinary action to the victim and 15 other pupils for being noisy in a mosque. The punishment: whipping with a rubber hose. Based on reports, it was not the first time that this sort of punishment had been used by the assistant warden to discipline students.
The investigators are also looking into whether the boy had any pre-existing medical conditions which may have exacerbated his injuries. None of the other 15 students are known to have suffered any severe adverse reaction to their beating. It was also revealed that the boy’s mother was not aware of his condition until two weeks later, relying on traditional healing before taking him to the hospital, where he immediately went into surgery.
It will be rough time for the family as there will undoubtedly be a fair amount of cruel and unfair finger pointing.
However, the focus must be clear and unequivocal; a rubber hose was used to beat a child. Regardless of whatever reason used to justify the so-called disciplinary action, this is child abuse.
Much has described about the assistant warden who has a criminal record and has been previously served time in prison. But I would argue that the warden and the principal of this religious school should be equally held responsible for what has happened.
They permitted the abuse of children to occur to students under their care. Despite the claim that the school, which has been in operation for the past seven years in Kota Tinggi, is against corporal punishment, the assistant warden would not have done this without at least the agreement of the school’s leadership. Remember, this is not the first time that this form of punishment has been used in the guise of disciplinary action.
The principal and warden must be held accountable.
I am shocked to also learn that the school, which is privately operated, does not fall under oversight or jurisdiction of the Johor Religious Department.
Who then governs the establishment of these tahfiz schools which seem to sprout all over the country, like mushrooms after the rain? The Ministry of Education? What kind of standards or guidelines are in place to regulate their educational content? Are the people who teach at these places even qualified to be educators? And most importantly, what code of behavioural conduct governs the teachers and staff who parents entrust with the education and wellbeing of their children in these schools?
The presence of the rotan, or in this case, a rubber hose, within the premises of an educational institution is an affront to educators everywhere but is also a signal that child abuse is permitted within school grounds.
Make no mistake. Whipping or caning is considered a form of torture or inhumane punishment under the UN Convention on Torture and Other Cruel, Unusual or Inhuman Punishment. We don’t need to have signed this convention (Malaysia hasn’t) to know that caning a child, for whatever reason, is abuse. Yet, we allow it in our schools.
Education director-general Tan Sri Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof confirmed in 2016 that school heads are allowed to cane students under strict conditions and for serious offences. He also clarified that caning has always been allowed based on the Education (School Discipline) Regulations which came into effect in 1959.
A 2003 circular outlined the kind of punishment that could be meted out in accordance with the severity of the offence. For boys, caning (light) is done on the palm of the hand or on the buttocks over the clothes. It can be done by the head teacher or other staff members. It is forbidden to cane female students.
Those defending this policy will say that this is only light caning and cannot be compared to more serious degrees of this form of corporal punishment. But the point is that this very act is permitted.
You cannot hide behind the clause that says “you can only cane or whip like this but not like that.” There are many children who have gone through this punishment and have never suffered through such serious and drastic physical injury. But you only need one case. One child. One life.
We don’t need a magic number to know when such abuse is wrong. After all, abuse is also emotional and mental in nature.
This 11 year old’s life will never be the same. But it is a heavy price to pay for imposing discipline.
Get rid of corporal punishment in our schools. Educate our children not abuse them.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
