Punishing colleges for brawling students is unjust and short-sighted
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Office of the Private Education Commission secretary-general Bundit Sripruttangkul wants to punish schools and colleges whose students start inter-school fights by halting enrolments, among other things.
But such collective judgement is not justice, for it hits innocent and guilty alike. The 1949 Geneva Conventions recognised this and made collective punishment a war crime: “No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed” (Article 33 of the Fourth Convention).
Bundit would hold school administrators accountable for the acts of students, who are no longer children, and would punish the multitude of innocents to penalise the guilty.
Not that the Ministry of Education is much better: Education Permanent Secretary Suthasri Wongaman proposes a raft of measures, including CCTV cameras, random searches and teacher patrols – none of which attacks the inter-school problems at their root.
For starters, how are vocational colleges whose students are highly regarded different from those whose students constantly brawl? The answers might provide leads as to the root cause. Hold students accountable for their acts, and consider if MOE and Opec administrators are a part of the solution or of the problem.
Burin Kantabutra
