Educators condemn harsh punishment for students

JAKARTA (JP): Physical punishment for students which borders on abuse must be prohibited as it is noneducational towards students, educators said yesterday.

Principal of Lab School in Rawamangun, Arief Rachman, said that mere physical punishment would not make students more aware of their faults or even change their behavior toward a more positive attitude.

"Students who make mistakes must be punished, but the kind of punishment given should be clarified between the school, the parents and the students," he told The Jakarta Post.

Recently a state-owned elementary school principal in Bengkalis, Riau, ordered six students to run naked around the school field as punishment for arriving late to class and disrupting lessons.

Four of them obeyed the principal while the other two refused to strip and had their ears tweaked.

The unusual punishment enraged the students' parents who demanded the education ministry remove the principal for humiliating their children.

Former principal of SMU Kanisius, JP Drost, told the Post that he believed punishment in schools should not involve physical abuse.

"That kind of punishment should be a parent's responsibility, when necessary," he said.

He expressed amazement toward the Bengkalis school principal's method, saying that that kind of punishment was very rarely practiced.

Separately, the director for elementary education at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Achmad DS, said that there was no agreement between the ministry and educators on what kind of punishments should be used toward undisciplined students.

"A teacher should make a sound judgment on what kind of punishment is to be taken," he said.

Achmad said that an investigation of the Bengkalis school's principal and teachers was underway to determine possible sanctions, Antara reported. (09)