VietNamNet Bridge – Students would be fined VND5-20 million for their behaviors of insulting teachers’ dignity, while teachers would be fined VND3-5 million for the behaviors of abusing learners, if the draft decree compiled by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) gets approval.

Mr Nguyen Tung Lam from Dinh Tien Hoang High School

On March 20, Truong Viet Dong, a parent in Phu Vang district of Hue City reported that his son, Truong Viet Dang Khoa, a third grader of the Thuan An Primary School No. 1, was beaten black and blue by the informatics teacher, just because he made a mistake when doing exercises.

The teacher, Tran Minh Son, was believed to beat the child with a wooden ruler.

A classmate of Khoa related that the teacher gave 3 lashes for every mistake. Therefore, Khoa received 9 lashes in total. When Khoa was about to cry, the teacher threatened to beat more harshly if he cried.

Khoa was not the only student who received the punishments from the young teachers. “A lot of students got afraid of informatics lessons because they feared they would be beaten by the teacher,” a parent said.

On the same day, Giao duc Vietnam editorial board received the information from a reader that some five-year-old children at the Le Quy Don kindergarten were forced to do the works which were beyond their capacity.

The children were asked by the teachers to carry the big barrels with food and pots inside from the fourth floor to the first floor. The barrels were described as big as the children’s bodies. Meanwhile, the work should have been undertaken by a worker named Nguyen Thu Huyen.

While parents have been complaining more and more about the teacher’s abuse over their children, teachers have been complaining that students nowadays are too naughty to be educated.

A teacher of a famous high school in Hanoi commented that students nowadays can be a big threat to teachers. “You may have to pay a heavy price for a slap on a student’s face. Meanwhile, you cannot punish students because they “are still young”,” he said.

The teacher related a story of a colleague of his, who let out a yawn during the lesson because he suffered from the insomnia. The image of his yawn appeared the next day at a student’s Facebook address and was then spread out among the students.

The old teacher then received heavy criticism from the public, including the parents, who said he did not deserve to work as a teacher. Since then, the old teacher became ridiculous in students’ eyes.

Advocating the MOET’s decision to impose fines to protect teachers and students from being outraged, Nguyen Tung Lam, Headmaster of Dinh Tien Hoang High School in Hanoi, said this would help stop the negative behaviors which have been conducted by both teachers and students over the last many years.

However, Lam believes that students not only need to be fined, but also should face criminal prosecution for their behaviors of beating teachers. Meanwhile, the teachers, who abuse students repeatedly, should be dismissed instead of getting merely reprimanded.

Lam emphasized that there must not be any excurse for the behavior of teachers beating students. Recalling the story about a teacher who beats students heavily when they made mistakes, Lam said the teachers need to be punished, even though he was applauded by some parents, who believed that children should be taught with rod.

Compiled by C. V