VietNamNet Bridge – A video clip showing a teacher in Thai Nguyen province torturing students has been forwarded among the Internet users’ community, which has stirred up the public. However, it is more sensational that the teacher has admitted beating students with rods is a teaching method.

On June 8, after the teacher gave back the test papers to students, he told the class: “Those, who got less than five marks from the tests, be ready to get spanked.”

The panic pervaded the class. A student named Duy was the first one who got 3 lashes. The student ground his teeth, enduring the lashes, while others well pale and shouted because of panic.

Some more students also got spanked at the same lesson, including female students. It seemed that the teacher did not give female students discriminatory treatment.

The video clip, after it was posted on Internet, has been spreading out rapidly among students, who believe that “this was a terrible discovery.” However, they have been told that the torture occurs regularly at the Thai Nguyen knowledge refresher center, headed by a teacher named Pham Minh Tuan, the biggest and the most bustling center of this kind in the northern province.

Those students, who get 6 marks and higher, would escape from the lashes. Meanwhile, those, who get 0-3 marks, would get 3 lashes, and if they get 4 marks, they would get two lashes.

 “Beating students with a rattan rod is one of the teaching methods applied at the center. The images you see in the video clip are not a particular phenomenon. All other students would receive punishment if they do not learn lessons well,” Tuan said.

However, he added that the teachers would only strike students when their parents ask to do that.

However, the parents, whose children were stricken in the video clip, have denied the fact that he asked the teachers to do that.

“We have never been warned about the possibility that my son would be beaten as a teaching method,” affirmed Vi Van Lang, the father of a student named Thanh.

Prior to that, Tuan had a meeting with the parents of two students, Nam and Thanh.

“Some reporters try to do a bad turn on me. If they contact you and ask about the lashes, you should say that the parents and the center reached an agreement before about using this kind of punishment during the teaching,” Tuan said to the parents.

According to Tuan, the center has been operating for four years after obtaining the license from the local education department. The center has also submitted curriculums and teaching methods to the watchdog agency for approval. However, Tuan has admitted that he did not say anything about the teaching method of using the rod.

When asked if he thinks that using violence in teaching would influence is an anti-pedagogical method, Tuan said that at the center, the teachers should use this method, but they would not apply the method at their schools.

Meanwhile, the teacher in the video clip admitted that he conducted a wrong behavior and begged to be forgiven  and left his name anonymously.

Bui Duc Cuong, Director of the Thai Nguyen provincial education and training department has affirmed that the behavior is unacceptable, and that the department would force the knowledge refresher center to stop operation.

“The behaviors of the teachers here would badly affect the feelings of students. This may lead to the misunderstanding among parents that violence is a necesary education instrument,” he said.

Compiled by Kim Chi