Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school

It should be noted that caning is not new in Singapore schools, what’s new is that bullying is now punishable by caning. As a Singaporean who grew up in one of the rougher schools in the 2000s, it wasn’t uncommon for the very first assembly of a semester be a public caning, where students would be caned in front of the whole school. I never got to find out what it was for, but they’d have boys wearing lifejackets line up to bend over a table and recieve their canings. Presumably it was for a more severe issue, as there were also canings that happened privately in the discipline master’s officer.

in u.s. public schools, it was known as 'paddling' and was usually administered with a hand-held board with pre-drilled holes for less air resistance. the paddles were often hung in plain site as a deterrent. can't believe how quickly i recalled that, considering i can barely remember what happened yesterday...

I thought caning was already done as punishment against various other infractions.

Erm, this is kind of misleading because Singapore did not "introduce" caning for bullying; we've always had public caning for bad behaviour in school. Source: I grew up in Singapore and have seen caning been carried out.

You guys do realize you're just allowing full grown adults to beat up the children they hate right?

Terrible idea and is prone to all the abuses you would think. I went to a school for a year in a country that allowed this kind of thing, I was lifted by my hair as an elementary student because the PE teacher thought I didn't stand up fast enough. Really he was just an a******. Corporal punishment does not belong in public schools.

unfortunately many kids bully because of the physical abuse they're already receiving at home. there's got to be a better way.

Singapore *reintroduces* caning for boys who bully would be the more accurate title. We took it away once, bullying cases skyrocketed. There is intense pressure on the ministry to do something especially as kids these days seems to be pushing it. 2025 Sengkang case, 2023 suicide case were highly publicised. Schools are meant to be safe spaces for everyone. Schools are also meant to correct behaviour to socially acceptable standards (or ‘brainwashing’). Corporal punishment has seemingly worked previously in schools before being taken away in the 2000s, and it works well in our legal system. I honestly don’t see a big downside to bringing it back for the worst behaviours. It’s not like we are caning for simple mischief. Bullying has an intent behind it, and it leaves permanent psychological scars on the victim. Any form of deterrent is important to safeguard the other children. The mindset is also different between Asians and westerners. Physical punishment is still seen as somewhat acceptable for the most severe infractions. It isn’t the most ideal option, but it seems that most other ways are simply not working.

When in doubt, try physical abuse! That’ll learn ‘em not to physically abuse others I am sure.

Why does it only apply to boys?

Do they cane girls who bully each other?

Singaporean here, got caned in school in 2004 or so (was 14) for hitting a classmate in shop class (design and technology) with a hammer as a joke. Im pretty glad they whooped my ass for it, not gonna lie. Taught me to not be a dumb little shit.

just boys? there are girls also who bullys..

This doesn't change a thing. They just build resistance to beating. I stopped feeling pain from flogging at age 12

Not allowed for girls because it would be sexual, while it sure as hell is sexual for the boys either way. We're failing as a society. It disgusts me.

what about girls who bully others at school? they don't get caning?

Ehh. There was always caning for boys. I went to a all boys school. I witnessed it happening at least twice in school. This was in the late 90s

This sounds misleading. I'm from Singapore, and I got caned in front of my peers during the weekly assembly for stealing when I was 15. This was like 20 years ago? Caning has always been around, but it is for extreme cases. It felt more like a badge of honour rather than an embarrassing event though.

If you’re going to get caned for bullying, you’re going to make sure the bullying is severe enough to make the caning warranted.

Hasn’t Singapore always had school caning?

That will make them a good citizen… not

I like how SEA people be like “Oh ye that’s fine” Then we got westerners arguing about it

Was from a local school. I was the quiet reserved type. From primary to secondary. Got bullied incessantly. In secondary 2 or 3 can’t recall as it’s almost 2 decades ago back in 09. I was late and consistently. I hated school because of the hell hole of school. I tried changing school to no avail. Teachers weren’t supportive, principals wasn’t as well. Got rejected to 4 of the schools I told my mom I wanted to change to.. back to me being late, my PE teacher was also part of the disciplinary team, I was late one day, was my 4-5th time being late. He outright says the school will have to cane me. I quiver and shouted back at him, go ahead and cane me, I will tell my parents to write in to MoE. I had a letter from my dr saying that I have IBS, my IBS always acts up when I was about to go to school. I only knew later that it was due to my anxiety/depression that triggers my tummy aches in the morning. Long story short, my PE teacher put me aside asked me to go to his office. The first thing that came out from his mouth was to ask me to apologise because I had shouted at him. Soon after, I dropped out of school at 15 didn’t complete my GCE, I started working at 16 till NS. I was a victim and yet I was being punished. I didn’t have proper support system so I didn’t have proper education. I worked my ass off for 10 years. I’m glad for my family as they were patient albeit being busy with work and my other siblings. Now I’m going back to do my studies (I had done some part time during my working life) and I try my best to call out the bullies. I was bullied through and through and I’m glad my mental fortitude and resilient builds up as I age. Honestly, caning won’t help. Is calling out and shaming them that works. If caning is the solution, would they have punished my peers in my Co-curricular activity as well for making a mockery of me for having the “yellowish feet in the band” and giving me a certificate for it? It was clear as hell that I was the target. I hope those going through bullying and mental health crisis because of school finds the support they needed. It took me so much effort just to steel myself.

I’m glad bullying is taken seriously but this is not a good way to do it. Too easy to be manipulated against the wrong people.

behaviorally speaking, if they define the behaviors that will result in this consequence, and apply it judiciously, it should result in a decrease in behavior. that being said if a child can engage in bullying and doesn't get caned because they talked their way out of it, their parents said something, they did a behavior close to but not the definition, then you'll teach them a series of new behaviors that serve the same function. proper punishment must be clear and fair and should be applied quickly so the child learns this action resulted in this consequence.

I see no possible way this could go wrong... Definitely won't see kids using this against other kids they don't like....

Is there a correlation between those who want to spank kids in schools and those that diddle the kids in schools?

Teach kids not to bully by teaching them that it’s acceptable to beat the c*** out of children who misbehave

Yeah I don't think that's gonna work

Humans are complete idiots.

How did they manage to hit "Well done, it's about time!" *and* "Holy hell, that's fucked up!" without hitting ANY of the middle ground?

I thought this said “ caring” and I was like how nice did they find a way to use therapy for bullies?

This only incentives bullies to preassure the victims even more while offering them no more protections aid or making reporting easier and safer.

punishing violence with violence. great.

Singapore, come for the punishment olympics!

Doesn't that just indirectly incite violence?

some people online are cheering this because they remember brutal school bullying, others see it as state-approved violence. feels like one of those debates nobody’s changing their mind on ()

Canning in schools isn't a new thing in Singapore btw. It has been a thing in the past, way before even some people here were born. Also the bully parents are inform beforehand and the school must seek permission from the parents before the school is allowed to cane the student.

Then the bully victim can get beaten up twice once they finally stand up to the bullies and get caught by the teacher.

So the bully's will just taunt the kid then get then to relaiate in front of the caner so the bullied kid gets their ass whopped twice

Bullies are usually abused and it is why they are bullies. How is caning them (abuse) going to help?

As a Singaporean who has witness school caning during my school days, I think you foreigners have a big misconception. The students are brought on stage in front of the whole school and caned with pants on, with a regular size cane. Not those serious caning like in jail where they take your pants off and your butt skin splits after a single stroke. The whole process was not astonishing. My schoolmates who got caned, just shrugged it off and grew up like any normal corporate slave with no trauma whatsoever. The whole idea is to public shame on bullies and sending a message to the rest. It’s better than having the bullies getting off with no consequences while the victim suffers silently. Is it effective? Debatable. But if I’m the victim, I sure would like to watch them on stage getting whipped than some behind the doors soft ass useless counselling

What is with Singapore and violence? Everything about that place seems so nice, then you hear about the bloodlust.

Such caning can leave permanent scars

Bully the bullies. Nice.

Ugh, it's well established that this is a bad idea and makes the bully behaive worse long-term. Can policies please be tied to quality research?

Torturing children isn't an acceptable solution for anything. Period. The fact that a modern nation like Singapore still uses medieval punishments is just disgraceful.

New bullying technique: Convince teachers you're being bullied by your victim so he gets caned.

If we look at the current state of our public schools, its not hard to realise why our ancestors resorted to corporal punishment in the first place. After all, Its not like people natually like beating kids anyway.

We *literally* have had caning for the longest time, its just that over the years they try to reduce corporal punishment but recently its gotten to be so heinously bad, they gotta bring it bad to fight against bullying To put it into perspective, I was bullied for almost 6 years in my primary school days, and NONE of those bastards got punished, this was in the 2000s

Because abusing someone really fixes all behavioural issues 😡