China Aims to Give Teachers More Power to Punish

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Recently, China’s Ministry of Education issued the draft rules of a new regulation on the implementation of educational punishment for primary and secondary school (standard primary and secondary schools, secondary vocational schools, and special education schools) teachers. The new regulation is open to feedback from public opinions until December 22 this year.

To help teachers to achieve better results, the new regulation lists punishments allowed to be carried out by teachers based on three categories according to the severity of the student’s offense, including “naming and shaming”, suspending the student from taking field trips or other group activities outside the class schedule, and notifying the parents immediately.

In response to increasing public concern about school bullying incidents, the rules clearly point out that if students bully classmates, abuse teachers, or commit other acts of misconduct, teachers should ask the school to suspend the student from classes or school for up to one week.

Beijing voices on the new regulations

Jolie, a mom of a middle school girl who is now studying in seventh grade of a key public school in Dongcheng District, Beijing, welcomed the move. “But in practice it could be complicated,” she said. “The teacher’s disciplinary measures against students are basically consistent with the content of the new rules, which is appropriate.”

As a mom of a 6-year-old boy, Bing from House of Knowledge strongly agrees with teachers setting boundaries and rules for their children and encourage them to practice them. But if the child is not good at something, corporal punishment is not a good method.

Yi’an, a 6-year-old international school student, said both adults and children should have the same rights. The regulations will not help students behave better. If the adult administers corporal punishment to the child, the child will be more resistant.

From the point of view of a mom who has a special need child, Grace disagrees with the new regulation. “The rules for special needs children, especially children with autism, are very unfriendly.”

She told us that the lack of understanding of rules is a major feature of children with autism. They might show “undisciplined” actions such as not listening to the teachers, violating classroom rules, even having physical conflict with classmates. All those behaviors need the teacher’s guidance, instead of punishments.

On the other hand, some teachers said the regulation will at least help students better understand the consequences of misbehaving and that the role of parents is important during the implementation of the regulation.

Photo: tooopen.com, moe.gov.cn, unsplash

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