School Corporal Punishment1

Running Head: IMPLEMENTATION OF CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOL

Corporal Punishment Should Not Be Implemented in Malaysian Schools

Nuur Raihan binti Shukor
International Islamic University Malaysia

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I
II

III

Abstract
Introduction
Arguments
Argument 1
Argument 2
Counterargument
Refutation-Argument 3
Islamic Perspective
Conclusion
References

Page
3
4
6
7
8
9
11
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13

Abstract
Corporal punishment is a common issue in Malaysian school. Even though some countries had
already banned school corporal punishment, Malaysia is still implemented corporal punishment
in school. This paper presents about the pros and cons of corporal punishment in school. The
objective of this paper is to discuss about the school corporal punishment and its effectiveness

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towards the school community itself. There is also some recommendation and suggestion
proposed as the alternative of corporal punishment in school. However, it is a vital to do a deep
research about this school corporal punishment in order to develop our educational system in
Malaysia for our future generation.

Introduction
Ahmad, who is a ten year old child, is active and intelligent in school. He enjoyed every
moment he spent during school hours. He loved going to school for learning new things and
having a lot of friends around him. One morning, he was overslept and missing his bus to school.

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Consequently, he reached school late. When he was entering his classroom, his teacher asked
him to submit his homework for the previous lesson. Surprisingly, Ahmad found that he did not
do his homework at home. He apologized to the teacher for his fault because really forgot that he
had homework to be done. Unfortunately, his teacher became angry to hear that and slapped him
across the face. Because of the strong slap, Ahmad got bleeding and was sent to the hospital.
After going through a medical check-up, the doctor said that Ahmad got internal injury and may
lose his left hearing. As his parents learnt his bad condition, they lodged a police report to the
nearest police station and the teacher had been arrested for further investigation. Even though his
parents had made a report regarding the case, they realize that it would not give back their sons
hearing. The incident left the emotional and physical marks to his life. This situation is one of the
effects of corporal punishment in school that is always debated by parents and teachers.
What is corporal punishment actually? Referring to Encyclopedia Britannica, corporal
punishment is defined as the physical disciplining of children in the schools and at home.
Corporal punishment could be separated in three which are parental (or domestic), school and
judicial. According to Wapedia, school corporal punishment is an official punishment that
involves spanking the school students in an intended school ceremony. The punishment is
usually done by using a rattan cane, wooden paddle or leather strap, either across the buttock or
on the palm of hand. However, the school corporal punishment should be carried out only with
certain conditions determined by the ministry. Ikhtisas Circular Letter, number 7/2003 stated:
Regulation 6:
Headmaster of a school may from time to time, subject to any conditions and what he
thinks fit, delegate authority school discipline and the power to judge other teachers in

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school or to students who set him for the purpose of, but unless the above is not one
teacher or student may exercise that power except with the specific instructions.
Suzieana Uda Nagu (2004) reported that The Education Ordinance 1957 allowed corporal
punishment to be done in school involving schoolboys only. However, this ordinance was revised
since parents had expressed their disagreement about this issue. Yet, this issue is still being
discussed by the ministry either to continue with it or not. There are some people who argued
that corporal punishment should be continued in school as it is a quick fix to the disciplinary
problem. They claimed that students can immediately catch up their lesson in class after being
punished by teachers instead of being suspended from school. On the contrary, others feel that
corporal punishment should not be implemented in school because it will lead to physical abuse
to the students. While others may strongly disagree, I believe that corporal punishment should
not be implemented in school because it is ineffective, detrimental and abusive.

Argument 1
First of all, corporal punishment should not be implemented in school because it is
an ineffective corrective measure. Admittedly, corporal punishment will be a quick fix in
schools in order to make the students stop from what they are doing. Students can easily going
back to their classroom lesson after receiving physical punishment from teachers. From this
situation, we can say that corporal punishment provides a save time formula instead of students

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having school suspension for several days that will absolutely affect the students lesson in
school. However, does corporal punishment will ensure disciplinary and behavioral progression
among students?
In the words of a Journal Adolescent Health (1992), there is no positive effect developed
through punishing students physically. Students who had been penalized for their misbehavior
never show that their obedience and moral characters are improving. Usually we can see this
situation in school whenever students had been punished by their teacher some may feel afraid to
repeat their mistake again. Conversely, they are some students who always doing the same
mistake or even doing another offence that would make them being punished by teachers often.
This kind of students is consistently being labeled as problematic students in school. They
ignored any advice or warning from their teachers and did anything they love to. This
circumstance shows that punishing students is not a guarantee to make the students attitude
become better.
Caning, as one of corporal punishment method is always being practiced in Malaysian
schools especially for secondary schools. Chiam (2004) mentioned that even though caning is a
quick fix, it does not solve the underlying problem. Besides, Dr D. Sinniah (1993) claimed that
there is no proof to suggest that corporal punishment can develop students learning ability. A
method of hitting and spanking does not guarantee to produce a better person in terms of
discipline, behavior, moral character as well as academic. It is just a reward for problematic
students which will make them feeling scared to do mistakes in public. But, unconsciously these
students will become more wild and rebellious to their own feeling because of punishment that
they had faced through. At the end, corporal punishment will become a cause of leading to

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another new problem instead of solving the previous problem. From this fact, I believe that
corporal punishment is not the only correct and effective method to be used in schools.
Argument 2
Another reason against corporal punishment in school is corporal punishment may
be detrimental to students. As all we know, school corporal punishment involves spanking the
students who had committed offence in front of other students and teachers in school. For one
thing, teachers can be considered as second parents at school. Thus, it is the responsibility of
teachers to educate and teach students in school as well as to correct students misbehavior
during learning process. Unhappily, there are some teachers who had misused their power by
hitting students excessively which may cause serious injury involving students physical. As a
result, it becomes worst for students when teachers carry out the punishment emotionally as it
will make them terribly suffering for pain.
Besides physical injuries, corporal punishment is also affects students emotion. For
instance, when students had been punished by teachers in front of people, they will get angry and
feel humiliated. Meanwhile, the students who watched the punishment became fear.
Consequently, the students will feel disrespectful and lose their trust to the teachers and school.
Professor Judith (Tee Shiao Eek, 2008) mentioned that negative discipline causes continuous
violence in future. She said that as students are being punished when doing a mistake; it shows
that violence is acceptable and okay for a stronger to hit a weaker. Accordingly, students learn
that they can use violence whenever they think it is suitable to be applied. This circumstance
shows that corporal punishment gives the bad impact for students physically and emotionally.

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Likewise, the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) Representative to Malaysia Mr.
Youssouf Oomar (2008) felt that corporal punishment should be stopped in school in order to
prevent a cycle of violence from continuing. The World Report that was conducted through five
years of serious conference recommends that physically punishing children in school will make
children become depressed or aggressive as well as they may not become as usual as other
children to instill moral values. He also added that corporal punishment lessens students
capacity to react to reason. In addition, corporal punishment will produce anti-social, depressed
and aggressive people who may lead to unreasonable cost of social and health problem in our
future. From his statements, it could not be denied that corporal punishment will not only affect
the students mental and physical body but it also demands for social illness in future. Thus, it is
noted that corporal punishment will be detrimental to students physical, emotion and future life.
Counter Argument
Of course, teachers should give lesson to their students for every mistake they had done
in order to teach them to be a better person. If not, the students misbehavior will spread and
become hard to restrain. The National Union of the Teaching Profession secretary-general, Lok
Yim Pheng (2006) claimed that it is still relevant to practice corporal punishment in school for
the hyper-stubborn students. He added that there are several students who are difficult to handle
and always breaking school rules. He thought that only harsh punishment is suitable to control
these kinds of students in school. He also stated that corporal punishment is intended to teach
students, and it is accepted since it is not done publicly. Thus, there should not be worry of any
negative effect of school corporal punishment since the punishment will be doing in a special
room, only by the responsible teachers such as school principals or disciplinary teachers.

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Furthermore, the Ministry had supplied the guideline on the correct way in disciplining students
in schools and all schools should adhere to the regulations.
Wee Ka Siong (Agence France-Presse, 2009) told that corporal punishment in school
should be allowed as a precaution to control the students misbehavior in school. According to
him, students nowadays are too inventive in breaking the school rules and corporal punishment is
the best choice in controlling them. He also included that the corporal punishment will be held in
a mannered way by notifying the parents of delinquent to witness the caning and meting out by
the person who has been authorized to execute the punishment. The caning also will be done in a
confined area. Therefore, the delinquent will not feel ashamed and humiliated because of the
corporal punishment.
Refutation
Yes, it such an ease for conducting corporal punishment since every schools have been
provided by the guidelines. However, do you think that every school will go after the rules that
had been determined by the ministry? How will it become if the teachers and schools are just
ignoring the rules and guidelines? Thus, the last reason for opposing corporal punishment in
school is it may become abusive to the students if the schools and teachers are not following
the guidelines. The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (2004) reported that about seven
per cent of the girls from 5754 students who took part in a survey admitted being caned by their
teachers in schools. This incident should not be happened in school since it has been stated in the
law that caning is permissible only for schoolboys. It indicates that the schools as well as the
teachers are not really stick to the disciplinary guideline that has been provided to them.

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There is a time when teachers cannot control their emotion while carrying out the
punishment and this will lead to the physical abuse to the students. As a result, the students will
become the victim of teachers anger. And finally, the corporal punishment may happen to be a
teachers platform in abusing and releasing anger to students, unlike to educate the students in
the first place. It seems that corporal punishment is unfair for the students. The teachers who
suppose to be their educator and responsible individual to mould the students attitude will be the
one who practice violence in school. Youssouf Oomar (2008) pointed out that the students who
experienced violence have slight positive value as they become to vacate from academic quest
and lose their interest towards success. It is a waste for students who become lack of motivation
in striving for their future due to their experienced of being abused by teachers in school.
Frederick C. Green (1988) and UNICEF (2008) believed that corporal punishment in
school may become a form of child abuse and violence to students. They agreed that the core of
school corporal punishment involves the cause of pain and ends with the students feeling
humiliated. The negative effects of corporal punishment have never been shown to improve the
students attitude but to worsen their condition and can be labeled as child abuse towards
children. Based on the Society for Adolescent Medicine (1992), students would have lower selfesteem, overstated guilt feelings, and experienced the symptoms of anxiety as a result of being
abused or become the witnesses of abuse. In addition, the students who are being abused will
become injured and avoiding them to go to school for days, weeks or even months. For that
reason, corporal punishment is abusive and may become a waste of time for students.
Islamic Perspective

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It is stated in Glorious Quran about the reminder to act with wisdom and fair with
people. Referring to The Meaning of the Glorious Quran (2001) in Surah al-Nahl, verse 125,
Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the
better way. This verse encourages us to educate and call people to the right path with wisdom,
fair and better way. In my opinion in term of educating students in school, it is essential for us to
give lesson to them in a positive way so that it will be easy for them to reason and follow the good
things. It is quite a shame for teachers who always promote their students to become a better
person, not to use violence in school and give respect to other people if the teachers are the one
who demonstrate violence by practicing the corporal punishment in school.

Conclusion
On the other hand, I think the positive award is a better way in educating students in
school. There are many methods can be used to demonstrate the positive reinforcement to students
such as giving them a responsibility for every mistake they have done. For instance, if the students
are being caught for vandalizing the schools property they may be punished by giving them
responsibility to repair the property in a determined time. Another example is asking the students
who littering in school compound to clean the whole school compound as a penalty for their
mistake. When students are being taught about the responsibility of their own action, they will
learn that it is a must for everyone to receive any affect of their own mistake. Consequently, they
will learn the positive values while completing the responsibilities that have been assigned to them.
The examples before describe how important for students to learn positive values in order
to instill the positive manners in themselves. It is a must for the adults or teachers to practice and

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show the positive attitudes so that the students can be easily follow, since students learn more on
what they observe every day. It is illustrated such as teaching a teenager to drive a car. The
instructor will just sitting by the teenagers side and watching as well as giving instruction on the
correct way to drive the car. When the teenager drives the car carelessly, both of them will get
involved in a road accident. So, the instructor has to teach the teenager slowly and demonstrate the
easy and right way so that the teenager can easily follow.
As a conclusion, I believe that corporal punishment should not be implemented in school
because of ineffective, detrimental and abusive. It is important for teachers to note that students
learn more from their own mistakes. Promoting a positive situation in the class lesson is one of the
alternatives for corporal punishment. As a saying goes, action speaks louder than words. So, it is
encouraged that teachers have to be the good examples for students in acting in mannered way and
avoid violence in school.

References
Agence France-Presse. (April 07, 2009). Malaysia to revive caning in schools.

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Ahmad Faris bin Johan. Surat Pekeliling Ikhtisas Bil. 7/2003 : Kuasa Guru Merotan Murid.
Retrieved 25th February 2010, from
http://ppdlms.edu.my/portal/download/pekelilingiktisas/2003/7-2003.pdf)
Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 25th December 2009, from
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/138384/corporal-punishment
Green, F.C.. (1988). Corporal Punishment and Child Abuse:
Why do we continue to sanction child abuse in the classroom? para. 3. Retrieved 25th
February 2010, from http://www.nospank.net/green.htm
Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall. (2001).The Meaning of The Glorious Quran. Kuala Lumpur:
Islamic Book Trust.
Suzieana Uda Nagu, Spare the rod? News Straits Time, 21 March 2004.
Society for Adolescent Medicine. Journal of Adolescent Health: 1992; 13:240-246. Retrieved
17th January 2010, fromhttp://www.nospank.net/sam.htm
Tee Shiao Eek. ( October 12, 2008). Fostering a positive school environment.
The Sunday Star. Retrieved 17th January 2010, from
http://www.unicef.org/malaysia/reallives_9147.html
United Nations Childrens Fund. (October 6, 2008). Lessons in violence nurture shame and more
violence for children. Retrieved 12th March 2010, from
http://www.unicef.org/malaysia/media_9199.html
Utusan Malaysia. (March 11, 2006)

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Wapedia definition. Retrieved 17th January 2010, from

http://wapedia.mobi/en/School_corporal_punishment