Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Malaysia to revive caning in schools

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - - Malaysia is to revive caning in schools to curb discipline problems among pupils, three years after making moves to ban corporal punishment, a minister said.
The government made the decision to revive caning last month and it will issue specific guidelines on how to implement the punishment, deputy education minister Wee Ka Siong told AFP.
"We will allow the headmaster or anyone who has been authorised to execute the punishment, while parents will be notified and invited to witness the caning to be done in a confined area," he said.
"We need to take precautions because students nowadays are not like students those days -- they are 'too creative' in breaching the rules now," Wee said.
In 2006, the government said it was planning to ban public caning in schools, where the punishment is administered on the buttocks or the palm of the hand.
The education ministry also said a year later that it was considering allowing schools to cane unruly girls to curb an upsurge in discipline problems including gang fights and bullying.

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