The Slap

The incident of a 6th grade teacher at Duy Ninh Secondary School (Duy Ninh Commune, Quang Ninh District, Quang Binh Province) ordering students in the class to slap a student in the face for violating discipline on November 19, 2018 is not new. The evidence is that just typing the words "slap student in the face" on the Google search engine will yield 9,460,000 results in just 0.37 seconds. Just by glancing through, we see a wide variety of subjects performing the act: "teacher slapping", "teacher slapping", "students in the class slapping", "students slapping themselves"... and also a wide variety of slapping styles, such as "face-flipping slapping", "slapping loudly", "slapping continuously"...

What has recently caused outrage in public opinion is perhaps the number of times each student had to slap their friend in the face, according to the teacher's order, which was actually a threat: "Each student must slap 10 times. Anyone who slaps lightly or not enough will be slapped back twice as hard by N." And the teacher was the one who delivered the final slap, 231 slaps, to end a mass execution witnessed by 23 students aged 12 and teenagers.

When incidents like this are reported in the press, the teacher who committed the act or ordered the act to be carried out usually explains and finds the cause of the blame. Some say it was because she was so angry that she lost her mind, some said she was frustrated and couldn't control herself, some said she was under a lot of pressure, some said her family had unhappy events... but this time, for the teacher at Duy Ninh Secondary School, it was due to pressure on performance. The school was being built to meet national standards at level 2, but the class she was in charge of still had some naughty students, the criteria were not met, so there was a lot of pressure.

The direct cause that the teacher and the Principal of the School mentioned is called “achievement disease” that the education sector has been infected with for a long time, and currently shows no signs of abating. We are not unfamiliar with the times and places where the classroom turns into a stage. Teachers become actors, and students are reluctantly forced to participate in the tragicomedy. In order to have good teaching practice hours, to have good year-end results, to have this locality hold its head high compared to other localities, many teachers and educational administrators have used anti-educational measures.

Why has the “achievement disease” not subsided? Although since 2006, when he took office, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan launched the “Two no’s” movement: Say no to the achievement disease and negativity in exams”. Are people not willing to cure it because it is linked to the interests of many people? Each subject in educational activities can be both a victim and a beneficiary. The ultimate loss is to society and the nation when they have to use poor quality products or worse, do not know the real quality behind the degrees, certificates, and results tables. The case of cheating on university entrance exams by officials of the Department of Education and Training of Ha Giang province that shocked the whole country at the beginning of the school year is a new shock that is more terrible than the shock caused by Phu Xuyen A High School in 2006 and Doi Ngo Private High School in 2012, along with many other incidents that have caused society to lose confidence in the certificates of the country’s education sector.

The reason for using violence due to pressure to compete and pursue achievements is real, but it may just be a fallacy. In the specific case of Duy Ninh Secondary School, according to the press, student N. initially did not commit any violations related to competition. She only mentioned the name of the author of the song when she saw the teacher write it on the board. The student sitting next to her thought that N. intended to curse her mother's name, so she told the teacher. Without investigating the truth, without handling the conflict between the two students, Ms. Thuy immediately ordered the class that after class, each student had to slap N. 10 times. Whoever slapped lightly or missed would be slapped twice as hard by N. When the last student finished, too upset, N. cursed, and Ms. Thuy immediately slapped her again, causing N. to be hospitalized. The fact that the Red Flag team heard N. swearing and writing down her name during recess in the schoolyard is a detail that some newspapers reported, some did not (because it was assumed that the Red Flag team wrote down some of the class's mistakes but not N.'s case, which made the teacher already upset).

Ultimately, the cause lies in the “quality of people” and the quality of the teacher’s profession. It is known that this is not the first time this teacher has slapped a student in the face. This teacher lacks humanity with young children. This teacher does not have the ability to handle situations in the classroom. This teacher is unable to control negative emotions, a sign of immaturity. This teacher is not qualified to stand on the podium. The district Department of Education and Training has taken timely action by directing Duy Ninh Secondary School to suspend this teacher from teaching. The Director of the Department of Education and Training of Quang Binh province, Mr. Dinh Quy Nhan, also told the press at a meeting on Saturday afternoon (November 24) that the incident of the teacher punishing a student with 231 slaps is a very serious violation of teacher ethics and will be handled to ensure that similar cases never happen again. Deputy Minister of Education and Training, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nghia, also requested that the Department soon have a concluding report on the incident.

Slapping students in the face, although it has been happening for many years, has had serious and long-term consequences for the physical, especially the psychology and personality formation of students, as well as for teachers themselves, who must receive appropriate forms of discipline, especially the discipline of conscience. Right at this time, the Ministry of Education and Training has just released a Draft Decree on administrative sanctions for violations in the field of education to solicit opinions from teachers, parents and people of all walks of life. The Draft Decree provides many sanctions to prevent negative events from occurring in the educational environment, especially many regulations related to standards and ethics of teachers. All violations such as cursing, insulting, and beating students... are converted into money, "hitting" directly into the teacher's pocket if violated. Article 32 of the Draft Decree stipulates: Fines from 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 VND for acts of insulting the dignity and honor of students. Fines of 20,000,000 to 30,000,000 VND for acts of physical abuse of students. In addition, if violated, teachers are also forced to publicly apologize to students or be suspended from teaching for 1 to 6 months.

Don't teachers know these rules?

School violence, the bell has rung loudly but why are there teachers pretending not to hear?

Educational theory and practice both show that education is only successful when teachers truly love and respect learners.

The human resource gap caused by the floor score in admissions in recent years, due to not examining the reasons for choosing a career, due to not being equipped with enough skills to handle pedagogical situations, lack of psychological knowledge, legal knowledge, low income... is the biggest challenge of the industry in the face of fundamental and comprehensive educational reform.