Alarming cases of teachers mistreating students

Deputy Minister Dang Huynh Mai visiting TramVietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese newspapers have recently reported a series of cases of teachers hurting students’ physical and mental health, leading the country to question the professional ethics of teachers.
From grilling to poisoning
The event that turned public and media attention to teachers’ treatment of students was the case of 10-year-old student Huynh Thi Ngoc Tram becoming panic-stricken after being accused of stealing VND47,800 from the class fund and questioned by local police.
On the morning of March 14, Tram and another student from An Hiep Elementary in Dong Thap province, who had been earlier accused of stealing class money, were summoned by the official in charge of students’ affairs. After both of them denied the charge, the school’s president ordered them to be taken to the commune’s police for further investigation.
According to Tram’s family, for weeks after the investigation, Tram was shocked, refused to go to school and many times in the middle of the night, woke up crying, “Don’t send me to the police, please. I didn’t steal.” Later Tram was taken to the hospital and sent to live with her maternal grandma to recover.
After Tram came another serious case. Huynh Thi Be Ty, a 7-grade student from Hoa Binh Junior High also in Dong Thap, attempted suicide after her teacher checked her body in front of the class to find out whether she had stolen VND100,000. Ty was hospitalised for a week, during which time her teacher did not once visit her.
And the most recent case is that of a math teacher from Gia Lai province who punished 20 students for creating disorder during exams by hitting each of these students. Two of them were so seriously beaten that they were sent to the hospital. Before hitting them with a ruler, the teacher warned them many times to behave.
The most serious case, however, is a kindergarten teacher’s attempt to poison students for personal grudges against the school’s president. Do Thi Lien from Linh Nam Pre-school in Hanoi put mouse poison into children’s meals in order to get the school’s president to give her back her former post as an accounting staff instead of being assigned to head a class.
Officials’ response
Investigations have been made and those teachers and school officials involved in these cases have been disciplined.
These cases, especially that of Huynh Thi Ngoc Tram, have caught the attention of the Ministry of Education and Training, which is in the process of trying to reform and improve the Vietnamese educational system.
Yet, teachers sometimes aren’t the only ones to blame. Deputy Minister Dang Huynh Mai, who has personally visited Ngoc Tram, said, “Recently, there have been some cases of teachers treating students in the wrong way. These teachers are to blame for their inappropriate behavior.”
“For instance, in Ngoc Tram’s case, the official in charge of student affairs thought about sending Tram to the local police since his relative is a policeman. He thought that children would tell the truth before the police. Yet, there is another detail. Tram’s parents got angry with her for getting into trouble with the police, so they scolded her and burned her books. This might have also terrified Tram. So perhaps parents should also know children’s psychology.”
According to Ninh Thi Hong, the chief investigator of the Commission of Population, Family, and Children, many children complain that adults don’t listen to their opinions; though they are half-grown up mentally and physically, they need to be listened to, and explained to if they are wrong.
Ms. Hong said that she and the Ministry of Education and Training had investigated children’s rights in school and observed that most students didn’t get enough attention from teachers. Many teachers think their responsibility is only to teach. Thus, children, even naughty ones, aren’t often the ones to blame. Ms. Hong added that children are just and they listen, though there are exceptions.
(Source: VNE, TT, TP)