KUALA LUMPUR: Popular singer-actress Adibah Noor sympathises with the school teacher in the centre of a recent controversy in Johor Baru.
The teacher has come under fire from Netizens for allegedly caning a secondary school student, leaving red marks on her arms and legs, early this month.
Adibah, 48, who was a school teacher in the Klang Valley two decades ago, tweeted yesterday that schoolgirls could be “very nasty” to teachers, and she actually encountered them back then.
She said: “As a one-time school teacher, I can attest that some schoolgirls can be real gangsters at school.
“And to make matters worse, their parents side with them and lambast the teachers who take action against them.
“Such parents also behave like gangsters and refuse to accept that their daughters have disciplinary problems.
“Parents should always be cooperative with teachers for their daughters’ own good.”
Netizens commended Adibah for her stand, and revealed that things were different in their parents’ generation.
Back then, parents gave full authority to teachers to discipline their children, and students were afraid to tell their parents that their teachers caned them, as they will receive “double or triple the rotan” from their parents.
“I miss those days. Parents are pampering their kids nowadays, and as a result they become gangsters,” said Fitri.
“Well said Kak Dibah! Teaching is a noble, yet very unrewarding profession, for we have to put up with little monsters,” said Ika.
“Discipline is good, but there has to be limits. I’m not taking sides in the latest incident,” said Ramlan.
“The best teachers are ‘cruel’. You got to be cruel to be kind. I don’t understand why parents are so over-protective of their naughty kids now,” said Azman.
It was reported yesterday that Johor Baru District Education Office (PPD) had launched a probe into the case of a schoolgirl who was caned by her male teacher.
Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching said the District Education Office called for a meeting between its officers, the school and the student’s parents.
A video clip of the incident recently went viral and showed a woman, believed to be the girl’s mother, questioning the male teacher’s actions. The girl’s “rotan marks” were also shown in the video.