SINGAPORE: When I was in Secondary 1, I watched two upper secondary boys being caned in front of the whole school for being caught with prohibited materials. Alongside hundreds of boys who stood watching, I remember the stillness, the silence - then the sound.
What stayed with me was not the pain they must have felt. It was the public nature of it. To be called out in front of everyone you know, with your peers and juniors watching, is a different kind of consequence from the caning itself. It made clear that certain actions carried serious weight.
I think about this now as the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced a stricter framework for student misconduct in schools, including standardising caning as a disciplinary option across all schools for serious offences such as bullying.
While there is broad agreement on the need for a firm response to bullying, reactions to the use of caning have been polarised. Based on my observations, some parents feel the move is a step backwards, while others see it as long overdue.
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As a psychiatrist, I have sat on both sides of bullying. I have listened to young people trying to make sense of why they were targeted. I have also sat with families struggling to understand why their child hurt someone else.
I am also a father of three. If my child was bullied, I would want the school to respond quickly and clearly. If my child was the one accused of bullying, that would be a different discomfort - disbelief followed by questions about what happened and what did we miss. Even then, I would want my child held accountable.
I want to be clear about where I stand - I believe in consequences.
In my clinical work, I have seen what happens when behaviour continues without clear boundaries. Young people who bully and face no meaningful response often escalate. Some go on to further behavioural problems, disengagement from school and in some cases, later involvement with the law.
The absence of consequence is not kindness. It harms both the victim and the person causing harm.
Victims carry the cost. I have seen young adults whose anxiety, self-doubt and social withdrawal trace back to being bullied years earlier. Some avoid situations they should be able to enjoy. Some still hear the voices of those who tormented them.
Being bullied is not something victims can simply grow out of. It becomes part of how they see themselves. So, when parents of victims ask for strong responses, they are not asking for cruelty; they are asking for protection and recognition that real harm has been done. That is reasonable, and the system should meet it.
It also sends a clear signal to other students watching that certain lines will not be ignored.
But this is where my clinical concern begins.
Caning is a serious measure, with some describing it as barbaric. These are not unreasonable views and deserve to be taken seriously.
Research on corporal punishment, including in schools, shows a similar pattern. It may produce short-term compliance, but is also linked to higher rates of aggression, anxiety and later mental health difficulties.
Education Minister Desmond Lee on Tuesday (May 5) acknowledged such concerns in Parliament though he also noted that the school context, with protocols and safeguards in place, is different from unregulated settings such as homes where frequent unregulated corporal punishment can lead to negative outcomes.
While the distinction matters for how caning is administered, it does not eliminate the underlying clinical concerns
Caning in schools is no longer the public spectacle I witnessed decades ago but the social visibility of punishment in a digital age, where news travels via messaging apps before the school day ends, creates a similar sense of exposure. The knowledge that a boy has been caned can follow him long after the event.
Shame, in adolescence, is a particular kind of wound. It does not simply teach a lesson. It can reshape identity at an age when identity is still forming. In clinical work, I have met adults who can still describe a single moment of humiliation from their school years in vivid detail. Many have organised their lives around it, avoiding the situations, careers, or relationships that might bring it back. The moment did not pass. It stayed.
This is not an argument against consequence. It is an argument for how consequence is chosen, delivered, and followed up, so that it teaches without becoming a lasting mark.
A school's role is not only to hold young people to account. It is to shape them. That work is rarely done by a single act, however firm.
This is why caning must sit within a wider spectrum of measures that run from prevention at one end to firm consequence at the other, with many measures in between.
Restorative practices deserve more attention within this spectrum. These do not replace consequence; they follow it.
It is reassuring that Mr Lee, the minister, noted that schools use caning as a disciplinary measure only when all other options are inadequate. It is “never administered in isolation but always as part of a suite of restorative and disciplinary measures”.
Unlike punishment alone, restorative practices focus on accountability through dialogue. Young people who have caused harm are guided to face the impact of their actions, often in conversation with those they have hurt, while victims gain a sense that their experience has been acknowledged.
In my experience, the young people most likely to change are those who have had to sit with what they have done, not just the consequence that followed.
This matters because young people who bully are not all the same. Some are navigating difficult home environments. Others struggle to manage anger or have learnt that aggression gives them control. If we do not address what sits underneath, the behaviour often returns.
For victims, the work is also not finished when the perpetrator is disciplined. They need to know that someone listened and feel safe again. Without this, the consequence can feel hollow.
Yet, schools cannot do this work in isolation.
Teachers are already stretched, making difficult judgement calls in real time, often without the full picture and under scrutiny whichever way they decide. They are managing relationships, emotions and expectations from students, parents and the wider community. If we want schools and teachers to handle bullying well, we have to give them time, training and trust.
Meanwhile, consequences in school paired with parental denial will not produce change. Both prevention and response begin at home.
Children learn how to treat others before they enter school. They learn from how adults speak, handle conflict and set boundaries. If we expect schools to teach this, we are asking too much.
Similarly, when a child is disciplined at school, the work does not end there. Caregivers need to carry it home through difficult conversations, honest reflection, and sometimes professional help.
At the end of the day, what children need is to know that harming others carries real consequence. They need those consequences to be firm, fair, and not humiliating. They need adults who will hold them accountable and still believe they can change, and they need those adults to work together.
Caning is perhaps one way but not the end of teaching a child. It is not even the most important part of the conversation. What matters more is what comes after, who walks alongside the child and whether the lesson becomes one of fear or one of growth.
If we get that right, we are not just stopping behaviour. We are shaping who these young people become, long after they leave the school gates.
Jared Ng is a psychiatrist in private practice who works with children, adolescents and families. He was previously chief of the Department of Emergency and Crisis Care at the Institute of Mental Health.
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What stayed with me was not the pain they must have felt. It was the public nature of it. To be called out in front of everyone you know, with your peers and juniors watching, is a different kind of consequence from the caning itself. It made clear that certain actions carried serious weight.
I think about this now as the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced a stricter framework for student misconduct in schools, including standardising caning as a disciplinary option across all schools for serious offences such as bullying.
While there is broad agreement on the need for a firm response to bullying, reactions to the use of caning have been polarised. Based on my observations, some parents feel the move is a step backwards, while others see it as long overdue.
CNA Games
Show More Show Less
As a psychiatrist, I have sat on both sides of bullying. I have listened to young people trying to make sense of why they were targeted. I have also sat with families struggling to understand why their child hurt someone else.
I am also a father of three. If my child was bullied, I would want the school to respond quickly and clearly. If my child was the one accused of bullying, that would be a different discomfort - disbelief followed by questions about what happened and what did we miss. Even then, I would want my child held accountable.
WHY CONSEQUENCES MATTER
I want to be clear about where I stand - I believe in consequences.
In my clinical work, I have seen what happens when behaviour continues without clear boundaries. Young people who bully and face no meaningful response often escalate. Some go on to further behavioural problems, disengagement from school and in some cases, later involvement with the law.
The absence of consequence is not kindness. It harms both the victim and the person causing harm.
Victims carry the cost. I have seen young adults whose anxiety, self-doubt and social withdrawal trace back to being bullied years earlier. Some avoid situations they should be able to enjoy. Some still hear the voices of those who tormented them.
Being bullied is not something victims can simply grow out of. It becomes part of how they see themselves. So, when parents of victims ask for strong responses, they are not asking for cruelty; they are asking for protection and recognition that real harm has been done. That is reasonable, and the system should meet it.
It also sends a clear signal to other students watching that certain lines will not be ignored.
HOW CANING CAN AFFECT A CHILD
But this is where my clinical concern begins.
Caning is a serious measure, with some describing it as barbaric. These are not unreasonable views and deserve to be taken seriously.
Research on corporal punishment, including in schools, shows a similar pattern. It may produce short-term compliance, but is also linked to higher rates of aggression, anxiety and later mental health difficulties.
Education Minister Desmond Lee on Tuesday (May 5) acknowledged such concerns in Parliament though he also noted that the school context, with protocols and safeguards in place, is different from unregulated settings such as homes where frequent unregulated corporal punishment can lead to negative outcomes.
While the distinction matters for how caning is administered, it does not eliminate the underlying clinical concerns
Caning in schools is no longer the public spectacle I witnessed decades ago but the social visibility of punishment in a digital age, where news travels via messaging apps before the school day ends, creates a similar sense of exposure. The knowledge that a boy has been caned can follow him long after the event.
Shame, in adolescence, is a particular kind of wound. It does not simply teach a lesson. It can reshape identity at an age when identity is still forming. In clinical work, I have met adults who can still describe a single moment of humiliation from their school years in vivid detail. Many have organised their lives around it, avoiding the situations, careers, or relationships that might bring it back. The moment did not pass. It stayed.
This is not an argument against consequence. It is an argument for how consequence is chosen, delivered, and followed up, so that it teaches without becoming a lasting mark.
Related:
CANING IS NOT THE END
A school's role is not only to hold young people to account. It is to shape them. That work is rarely done by a single act, however firm.
This is why caning must sit within a wider spectrum of measures that run from prevention at one end to firm consequence at the other, with many measures in between.
Restorative practices deserve more attention within this spectrum. These do not replace consequence; they follow it.
It is reassuring that Mr Lee, the minister, noted that schools use caning as a disciplinary measure only when all other options are inadequate. It is “never administered in isolation but always as part of a suite of restorative and disciplinary measures”.
Unlike punishment alone, restorative practices focus on accountability through dialogue. Young people who have caused harm are guided to face the impact of their actions, often in conversation with those they have hurt, while victims gain a sense that their experience has been acknowledged.
In my experience, the young people most likely to change are those who have had to sit with what they have done, not just the consequence that followed.
This matters because young people who bully are not all the same. Some are navigating difficult home environments. Others struggle to manage anger or have learnt that aggression gives them control. If we do not address what sits underneath, the behaviour often returns.
For victims, the work is also not finished when the perpetrator is disciplined. They need to know that someone listened and feel safe again. Without this, the consequence can feel hollow.
Related:
SCHOOLS NEED SUPPORT TOO
Yet, schools cannot do this work in isolation.
Teachers are already stretched, making difficult judgement calls in real time, often without the full picture and under scrutiny whichever way they decide. They are managing relationships, emotions and expectations from students, parents and the wider community. If we want schools and teachers to handle bullying well, we have to give them time, training and trust.
Meanwhile, consequences in school paired with parental denial will not produce change. Both prevention and response begin at home.
Children learn how to treat others before they enter school. They learn from how adults speak, handle conflict and set boundaries. If we expect schools to teach this, we are asking too much.
Similarly, when a child is disciplined at school, the work does not end there. Caregivers need to carry it home through difficult conversations, honest reflection, and sometimes professional help.
WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO TEACH?
At the end of the day, what children need is to know that harming others carries real consequence. They need those consequences to be firm, fair, and not humiliating. They need adults who will hold them accountable and still believe they can change, and they need those adults to work together.
Caning is perhaps one way but not the end of teaching a child. It is not even the most important part of the conversation. What matters more is what comes after, who walks alongside the child and whether the lesson becomes one of fear or one of growth.
If we get that right, we are not just stopping behaviour. We are shaping who these young people become, long after they leave the school gates.
Jared Ng is a psychiatrist in private practice who works with children, adolescents and families. He was previously chief of the Department of Emergency and Crisis Care at the Institute of Mental Health.
Continue reading...