Arson, extortion, bullets in envelopes...

Certain events reported by the press seem to be cyclical, and it is just about time that the media turns its attention to the perennial problem of school indiscipline once again.

The press is quite adept at stoking the fire on issues and championing a cause for as long that it commands interest, outrage, whatever. And then it moves on, leaving the matter unresolved, to be rehashed at a later, more convenient time.

The recent spate of student violence is no different. The incidents reported of late - four cases of arson in schools, the stabbing of a primary schoolgirl by a schoolmate, the teacher who received a bullet in the post - are grave in nature, but they are, in essence, no more than fodder for news hounds.

Which explains why any published comment, suggestion, solution, or analysis from anyone solicited for theirs sounds almost hollow. Anything which has been said relating to the problem of student indiscipline has been said before, save of course for the prime minister's comment that students are inclined to violence because they are influenced by those who participate in street demonstrations and the like.

News stories can come and go but the underlying problem remains very real and it is about time that the authorities get real about solving it.

It is no point highlighting incidents of student violence if there is no concerted effort carried out to identify the cause of such violence and work towards a solution. And getting real about solutions means no wishy-washy educational surveys and grandiose teacher-parent, teacher-civil servant, civil-servant-minister conferences culminating in nothing but bureaucratic proposals for reform which, by the time they are implemented, are overtaken by events.

The embattled education system needs more than a shot in the arm to get it going again. Indiscipline among students is symptomatic of other problems besieging the education system, including a hostile learning environment staffed by demotivated teachers and directed by an unimaginative and taxing school curricula.

Students today find little joy in going to school because their days are filled with routine exercises of limited creativity conducted by tutors too burdened by excessive paperwork and low career prospects to care.

Teachers today complain that they spend too much time filling up forms and reports of lessons and school activities at the expense of actual teaching. And school administrators are more often than not fixated with school decor rather than with the standard of teaching and student welfare.

A teacher, who declined to be named, related the story of a state school inspector unusually obsessed with the state of a school's physical surroundings that all schools within his jurisdiction were falling over themselves to impress him with ruffled curtains and potted plants of every kind. Never mind that the minds of schoolchildren were not being challenged to their optimum, as long as the frills on the prefects' tables were perfectly aligned, it was aye-okay.

In a stifling environment where form matters more than substance, students constantly end up short-changed. It's no use coming up with snazzy policies with hip-sounding names like the "Smart School" project if they will benefit only a few, if any, of the masses. What is the purpose of equipping urban schools with computers and urban schoolkids with computer knowledge when the bulk of the population in need of IT skills (and who have no means to purchase such knowledge) reside outside the city?

What is needed now in the education arena is less talk and more action. Enough oration on this, that and the other. The public does not need or want excuses from educationalists, psychologists and such like. Neither does the public want blame attributed to parties sweepingly and without justification.

What we, as taxpayers, need is positive steps. Identify the causes of indiscipline, apathy and ignorance within the system and rectify it. Education is a long-term investment and we had better start paying better premiums now.

CELINE TAN is a member of the malaysiakini team.