VietNamNet Bridge – A headmaster at a HCM City school threatened to expel a student from school for missing a music performance.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Linh, a 11th grader at the Pham Ngu Lao people-founded High School in HCM City was informed that she made a serious mistake when she did not attend the performance as promised.

Le Thi Thanh Nguyet, headmaster of the school, said the decision was made as a warning to Linh and other students.

She went on to say that Linh’s behavior was “unacceptable” and needed to be heavily reprimanded.

“If Linh had been busy with her private business, she should not have promised to attend the performance,” Nguyet said.

“However, Linh broke the promise which badly affected the show,” she added.

However, the headmaster emphasized that the decision was just a “threat” to Linh to make her understand that she deserves heavy punishment. If Linh does not recognize her mistake and improve, she will be expelled, she said.

The threat by the school was enough to make the public “fly into a rage”.

A parent in Hanoi commented that teachers nowadays prefer using punishment to educate students.

He said the school did not have the right to expel students from school just because of minor mistakes.

The parent, whose son attends a primary school in Hanoi, noted that threatening to expel students is a common tactic used by teachers.

“You forget to bring color pencils with you to drawing lesson? You make a serious mistake and you may be expelled from school,” the parent said. “You did not review your lessons at home? The teachers will tell your parents and you may be expelled from school if you repeat the same mistake.”

Dr. Ngo Xuan Diep from the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities said such threats were not suited to deterring high school students from certain behavior.

“In many cases, students and parents will become unhappy with educators,” he said. “They will lose confidence in the educational method.”

Pham Phuc Thinh, MA, said that what the headmaster did was to “suppress”, not “educate”, students, and that this is not a reasonable educational method.

Thanh Mai