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[ghost]

In a scene, somewhat reminiscent of the one ghost lived through back in 2003 (in Turkey), a Junior High school student from Taichung Municipal Chu-jen used a cell phone to record footage of a teacher striking a student with a stick. The 26-second video footage clearly showed a student being struck nine times on the palms and ten times on the buttocks.

According to the foundation, the student was punished because he did not hand in his homework on time.

HEF Director (Taichung, Taiwan) Shih Ying said that the foundation went to the school in question on Tuesday to seek further details of the incident.

"What we want to do is to help schools and teachers to settle such disputes, not to accuse anyone," Shih said.

He related that the school treated the HEF members coldly and at first said it was unable to confirm whether or not the student was registered there.

According to the HEF, none of the school authorities asked if the student was hurt.

After the video was made public yesterday, however, the female teacher in question promised that she would never hit students again, while the school stated that its instructor evaluation committee would discuss how to discipline the teacher. But the school also claimed that the student was punished because he frequently neglected t do his homework or bring his books to school and his father has asked the teacher to punish him.

The foundation stessed that the MOE ten years ago advised against corporal punishment in schools, but incidents of beatings still seem to emerge, therefore the HEF is asking for legislation to ban corporal punishment on school campuses.

The Taichung City Education Bureau expressed regret over the incident and emphasized that corporal punishment is an unacceptable means of educating students.

Despite the above words, ghost has noted that corporal punishment is still used in some of the schools it has visited in Taiwan (include the Buxibans/Cram Schools), and as long as many parents accept this situation (and the parents frequently beat their kids at home in Taiwan, with no danger from the authorities...) these beatings, ghost feels, will continue.

Turkey is getting more in line with the rest of Europe with regard to corporal punishment, but incidents of corporal punishment are still frequent in some parts of Turkey, including the more basic rural areas, and parts of Istanbul with high populations of Turks from the Eastern parts. Turks, for all their charm and generosity can be very cruel when they blow a fuse, and incidents involving physical beatings still take place. You only have to scan the daily Turkish Press to be aware of the problem.

Source: Taiwan News (October 22, 2005)


Ghost in Taichung, Taiwan.