(NCS) — Singapore’s schooling minister has confirmed that teachers are allowed to make use of caning to self-discipline unruly students in sure instances.
“Our schools use caning as a disciplinary measure if all the other measures are inadequate, given the gravity of the misconduct,” Desmond Lee stated in parliament on Tuesday in response to questions on new anti-bullying measures introduced on April 15 – together with one asking in regards to the psychological well being influence of caning youngsters as young as 9 years previous.
“They follow strict protocols to ensure safety for the student. For instance, caning must be approved by the principal and administered only by authorised teachers,” he instructed lawmakers, with the new framework to be rolled out throughout Singaporean faculties from 2027.
“Schools will consider factors such as the maturity of the student and if caning will help the student learn from his mistake and understand the gravity of what he has done,” stated Lee.
“Schools exercise discretion on whether to use caning as a disciplinary consequence after assessing the circumstances of the offense committed,” he added.
“This approach is based on research which shows that children and youth learn to make better choices when there are clear boundaries enforced by firm, meaningful consequences,” stated Lee, claiming that it helps to cut back bullying.
The tips, that are set out on the Ministry of Education web site, specify that solely male students can be punished with the cane.
“Caning is a disciplinary option for boys only, and for serious offences as a last resort, when absolutely necessary,” it says.
Corporal punishment in faculties has change into more and more uncommon in many components of the world in current a long time.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that between 1 / 4 and half of kids around the globe expertise corporal punishment in faculties, and known as for an finish to the observe.
“The consequences of child corporal punishment can last a lifetime and undermine physical and mental health, education, and social and occupational functioning,” WHO stated in a report revealed August 2025.
“There is now overwhelming scientific evidence that child corporal punishment carries multiple risks of harm and has no benefits for children, parents, or societies,” it added.
Singapore, a small, extremely developed and rich monetary hub in Southeast Asia, is well-known for its strict legal guidelines.
At the tip of April, a French teenager was charged with two offenses that would land him in jail for as much as two years after he allegedly licked a straw in an orange juice merchandising machine – after which positioned it again in the dispenser.
It’s not the primary time a overseas teenager has fallen foul of Singapore’s strict legal guidelines.
One of essentially the most high-profile instances was in 1993, when American Michael Fay was arrested for possession of stolen gadgets and vandalizing a number of automobiles by spray portray them.
Fay, who was 18 on the time, was sentenced to 4 months’ imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane, which was diminished to 4 strokes after the case induced a global furor and intervention from then-US President Bill Clinton.
Singapore carried out the caning regardless of robust stress from Washington, sustaining that it was necessary to uphold its personal legal guidelines, even for overseas nationals – briefly straining the US-Singapore relationship.
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NCS’s Jessie Yeung and Satish Cheney contributed to this report.