Bersatu MP wants caning brought back to schools

PARLIAMENT | Rosol Wahid (PN-Hulu Terengganu) has proposed reintroducing corporal punishment in schools.

"I suggest that the caning of students who are not disciplined be allowed again.

"When we were in school, there was caning. But today it seems that the ministry prioritises parents more. Only when parents complain will the ministry take action," the Bersatu lawmaker told the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was debating the Parliamentary Special Select Committee (PSSC) on Women, Children and Community Development’s proposals to tackle bullying.

The discussion of bullying has reared its head following the death of 13-year-old Zara Qairina Mahathir in Sabah last month.

She died in the hospital on July 17 after she was found unconscious in a drain near the dormitory of SMKA Tun Datu Mustapha in Papar at 4am the previous day.

Several rallies have taken place since the incident, demanding justice for her death, in which foul play is suspected.

Push to make guideline compulsory

Before the debates, PSSC chairperson Yeo Bee Yin (Harapan-Puchong) expressed the committee's view that Zara's death would not have occurred if the Education Ministry's guidelines on bullying - last updated in November 2023 - had been followed.

Similarly, the case of a Form Three student in critical condition after falling from the third storey at a boarding school building in Sabak Bernam could have been prevented, she said.

"The question is, how many more Education Ministry schools are not following the guidelines? How many more are taking a denialist stance with the intention of closing cases quickly?

"What is the point of us ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, of us creating a comprehensive guideline - but in reality, all of these (measures) are just cosmetics to show the people that we have done our best in protecting our children," she added.

The PSSC has presented the government, especially the Education Ministry, with 17 recommendations to manage bullying.

This includes the recommendation for the ministry to make the bullying guideline compulsory for schools to follow, as it is not yet a mandatory part of the teachers' training syllabus, Yeo said.

Child-friendly hotline, complaint box

Another recommendation is for the ministry to set up a special child-friendly bullying complaint line with a chat function, and it should also use simple language that can be adapted to different ages and abilities.

"This is because the committee found through a consultation session that the existing bullying complaint channel is still not child-friendly and uses very bureaucratic language," she explained.

The PSSC also suggested that boarding schools provide a bullying complaint box, as children there do not have access to mobile phones or the internet.

Properly trained wardens

On student supervision, Yeo proposed that boarding school wardens be appointed from screened former police or military officers instead of teachers.

These wardens ought to be provided with child protection training as well as psychological testing, she added.

Besides that, she said discussions with other PSSC members led to a decision to hold an anti-bullying town hall to hear views from the public.

The committee will also hold more engagement sessions.

"After that, we will present another statement to provide recommendations and assist the government in its efforts to combat the bullying culture," she added.

Reporting by Zarrah Morden, Hariz Mohd, and Alyaa Alhadjri

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