VietNamNet Bridge - Modern education advises not to use force in teaching students. However, teachers complain that they feel powerless in educating disobedient students without rods.

Hundreds of teachers have shared their sympathy towards Thuan Phuong, a primary school teacher and author of the article Giao Duc Viet Nam newspaper published in early February. 

Phuong wrote that she suffers from chronic sore throat, an occupational disease, because she has to talk too much at school. She also complained that students were always noisy and playful.

This was the problem that Phuong’s colleagues also faced.

Sometimes, the class was so noisy that teachers lost their temper. They had to intimidate small students with rulers, or give some strokes to the buttocks of some naughty students to show off teachers’ power.

“Only by doing this can we keep the class silent to give our lessons. And only after getting punishment will the naughty students sit still and learn,” the teacher wrote.

However, if doing this, teachers will be accused of violating professional ethics. They will be reprimanded, disciplined or dismissed.

Phuong complained that she was in n ideological impasse because she could not find a proper solution to deal with naughty students. 

On March 13, a clip appeared on internet, showing a teacher beating a student with a rod witnessed by many students in the class.

The teacher was from Thu Thiem High School in HCMC, and the student was an 11th grader of the school. As the student did not concentrate during the informatics lesson, he received one stroke of whip on the buttocks.

The rod the teacher used was a plastic tube, about one meter long. H, the teacher, put the rod in the class to punish students. He was reprimanded by the HCMC Education & Training Department and he promised not to use the rod again.

However, many people have raised their voice in defence of H’s teaching method. A parent said H is a qualified and experienced teacher, whose students have won high prizes at national competitions for excellent students.

“What do you want, a teacher who ignores students’ bad conduct, or a teacher who is enthusiastic and always tries to educate his students into good persons?” Hoang Thuy Ha, a parent in Hanoi, said.

Phan Tuyet, a primary school teacher, in an article on Giao Duc Viet Nam in March, said that she once punished a student with a strike on the buttocks. For the rest of the day, she was still in an uneasy mood because she feared that the parent of the student may denounce her for using the rod.

However, to her surprise, the parent came and said thanks to her because the student had become more obedient after receiving the punishment.

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