Teachers beat and abuse children from time to time How to ensure the safety of preschool education

How to ensure the safety of preschool education? Incidents of kindergarten teachers beating and abusing children are common

□ reporter Zhang Shoukun

Recently, some netizens posted a video to break the news that a teacher in a kindergarten in Heilongjiang Province has been slapping children's faces for a long time, slapping children's heads, and pulling their hair, and the children will not stop beating when they cry. Multiple videos circulated online show a boy being brutally beaten on the head and pulled by a female teacher, and there is a scene where the boy is thrown from one place to another by pulling his ears.

According to reports, a staff member of the kindergarten involved said that the two teachers involved were temporary employees, and the kindergarten had dismissed them and was negotiating with the families of the parties on the matter.

This is not an isolated case. Recently, there have been incidents of kindergarten teachers beating and abusing children in many places, and parents are very worried about this. For example, on October 10, Ms. Quan (pseudonym) from Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, noticed that the corners of her 26-year-old son's mouth were abnormal, and her son cried aggrievedly, and the kindergarten teacher told her that the child accidentally knocked on the corner of the table. After repeated questioning, the child said that he was beaten by the kindergarten teacher.

Experts interviewed by the "Rule of Law Daily" reporter said that kindergartens are important places for children's learning and growth, and teachers should play the role of care and positive guidance, and if violence is used to punish children, it will inevitably affect children's physical and mental health. Kindergartens and teachers who beat and abuse children cannot simply be punished. It is necessary to strengthen supervision, guide the whole society to support and care for the cause of preschool education, and ensure that children have access to safe and high-quality preschool education.

The child claims to have been beaten by the teacher

Parents verify through monitoring

One day in May this year, the child got up for breakfast and everything was normal, and after eating, when he saw his mother Ge Jing (pseudonym) picking up an electric bicycle helmet and sending him to kindergarten, he suddenly became emotionally intense and said that he did not want to go to school.

"At first, he said that he was reluctant to give up his car toys, and I said that you can bring them to the kindergarten to play, but he still said no. Anyway, he just didn't want to go to school, and then he started crying as he spoke, and when he calmed down, he told me that the teacher had beaten him. Ge Jing, from a place in Jiangsu, recalled to reporters.

Ge Jing said that she called the teacher at the time, and the teacher said that the movement might be a little bigger, and she must pay attention to it in the future. "If you find that the child has been normal before, but the mood is not right when you go home or you suddenly don't want to go to the kindergarten, there is a high probability that you will encounter problems in the kindergarten, and parents must talk to the child in time to find out the real reason, and communicate with the teacher in time to solve the problem." Ge Jing said.

On July 7, Ms. Sun from Qingdao, Shandong Province, heard her child come back from kindergarten and say, "Mom, I'm so happy today, the teacher didn't hit me for a day today." ”

On July 7, she went to the kindergarten to check the monitoring and saw that the nursery worker Wang had done something to the child many times, so she asked the teacher involved to apologize to the child in front of the whole class.

On July 7, Ms. Sun applied to be accompanied by the police to check the kindergarten monitoring in the past 7 days, and found that the child was beaten almost every day, "I have recorded a total of 17 pages, and there are more than 11 records." Ms. Sun said that the most hands-on to the child was the nursery worker Wang, and the head teacher and the teacher also beat the child, poking the head with a pen, slapping the face, pulling the ear, pinching the arm, and kicking the leg. It is understood that the kindergarten has dismissed the three teachers involved.

The reporter noticed in the investigation that most kindergartens will install surveillance cameras in public areas, classrooms, activity rooms, conference rooms, corridors, entrances and exits, etc., and many times, it is precisely because of the monitoring that the child was beaten and abused to be confirmed.

Although there is no mention of monitoring equipment in the "Kindergarten Work Regulations" listed on the website of the Ministry of Education, many places have issued relevant regulations requiring kindergartens to install monitoring.

The Beijing Municipal Education Commission issued the "Beijing Kindergarten Quality Supervision and Evaluation Measures (Trial)", requiring kindergartens to achieve full coverage of video surveillance in public activity areas, and install emergency alarm devices in key parts of the institution; Shenzhen, Guangdong Province has built a kindergarten safety monitoring system, covering all kindergartens in the city, improving safety risk prevention and control capabilities, and preventing all kinds of potential safety hazards; The "Anhui Provincial Public Security Video Image Information System Management Measures" stipulates that schools, kindergartens and other places and parts involving public safety must install public safety video image information systems.

Under surveillance, why do teachers dare to beat, scold and abuse children?

A kindergarten teacher in Suzhou, Anhui Province said that there are no relevant regulations requiring kindergarten monitoring to be easily provided to parents to view, if parents insist on seeing kindergarten monitoring or children in the kindergarten has a major event need to verify the view, often parents need to submit a written application to the kindergarten, kindergarten verification submitted to the relevant departments, after approval, parents can see the monitoring.

"Therefore, unless the school takes the initiative to monitor the network, parents can watch their children at any time, otherwise parents can not view the monitoring at any time, to see the situation of the child in school, plus the kindergarten children are too young, many times will not express or express clearly, so some bad situations are covered up in the past, not dealt with in time, individual teachers have no fear or even intensified." The kindergarten teacher said.

Corporal punishment is frequent due to multiple factors

Pursue legal responsibility in accordance with law

In the view of Cai Hailong, deputy dean of the Institute of Educational Policy and Law of Capital Normal University, the reason why kindergartens are often exposed to corporal punishment and abuse of children is closely related to the overall situation of the current development of preschool education in China, the low level of school management in some kindergartens, and the low professionalism of a small number of preschool teachers.

"Judging from the current law, pre-school education is in nature an educational stage other than compulsory education, and the government only bears limited responsibility for pre-school education, which makes private kindergartens occupy an important position in the entire pre-school education system." Cai Hailong said that because the preschool education law has not yet been promulgated, such a large number of widely distributed private kindergartens, because of the lack of unified norms and management, its school quality and management level have been in an uneven state for a long time. Some kindergartens have failed to meet the prescribed standards for running schools, lack of due supervision and management of school-running behavior, and even do not have the corresponding school-running qualifications and teacher guarantees.

"In order to achieve the purpose of profit, some kindergartens recruit some people who have not received special education and training and lack the necessary professional ethics and professionalism to serve as teachers and nurses at a lower salary level, which is an important factor leading to the frequent occurrence of corporal punishment and abuse of young children." Cai Hailong said.

During the interview, some teachers told reporters that some teachers do have a tendency to beat and abuse children for a long time, but some teachers are out of control of their emotions for a while due to various reasons, so they occasionally have excessive behaviors towards children, and they can quickly realize their mistakes and correct them afterwards.

In this regard, Hu Yunyun, a senior partner of Beijing Yinghe Law Firm, believes that teachers need to bear corresponding legal responsibilities for corporal punishment and abuse of children according to different circumstances. Where corporal punishment is carried out on young children and is not changed after education, administrative sanctions or dismissal may be given by the school, educational establishment, or education department in accordance with the current authority of teacher management; Where corporal punishment or abuse of students is serious, the people's courts may pursue criminal responsibility in accordance with law as the crime of intentional injury or the crime of abusing the person under guardianship or care; If damage is caused to students, they shall also bear corresponding civil liability in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Civil Code.

Hu Yunyun said that to distinguish whether a teacher is emotionally out of control and beats a student or has a tendency and behavior to abuse students for a long time, we should pay attention to the background, causes, frequency and consequences of the teacher's beating. If a teacher hits a student because of disobedience, poor academic performance, etc., it is only an occasional phenomenon and does not cause serious consequences, this situation may be the result of a temporary emotional out-of-control; If teachers often physically punish, verbally abuse, and isolate students, seriously affecting the physical and mental health of students, then there is a tendency to abuse students.

"Where a student is hit by a momentary loss of emotional control and does not cause serious consequences, the teacher's misconduct can be corrected by criticizing and educating the teacher; However, teachers who have a tendency to corporal punishment and abuse for a long time should be punished more severely, and if the supervision department and the school confirm it after investigation, their teaching qualification certificate may be revoked, and if it constitutes administrative punishment or criminal responsibility, they should be punished according to law. Hu Yunyun said.

In the view of Zhou Shen, associate professor of the School of Education of the Chinese National University, these two types of erroneous teaching situations should not exist, and corporal punishment of students is strictly prohibited, and the relevant content is also clearly stipulated in the "Rules for Disciplinary in Primary and Secondary Education (Trial)". As professional and technical personnel, teachers need to learn to regulate and control their emotions, and schools should also pay more attention to teachers' personal mental health problems, strengthen psychological monitoring, provide teachers with help and support in various aspects, alleviate teachers' anxiety, and let teachers teach with peace of mind.

You can't just punish it after the fact

Improve legislation and administer education in accordance with the law

How should parents respond when they hear that their child has been beaten in kindergarten?

Hu Yunyun said that as a parent, after the child passed on the information such as being beaten by the teacher, he should remain calm, ask the child about the specific reason and process of being beaten by the teacher, and communicate with other parents, children or other staff in the kindergarten if necessary. If it is confirmed that the teacher has been beaten, parents should take immediate action to protect their child's rights. This includes complaining to the school, asking the school to deal with the teacher involved, and even suing the teacher. If a child is traumatized by being beaten, parents should seek help from a professional counselor in a timely manner.

In Hu Yunyun's view, the teacher's beating and abuse of students should be dealt with seriously in accordance with the law, and the teacher involved cannot be simply dismissed. The publication of the results of the investigation can make the public understand the truth of the incident and play a wake-up role. The punishment of kindergartens and teachers involved in accordance with laws and regulations will help fundamentally solve the problems of insufficient supervision of kindergartens and poor quality of teachers, and urge kindergartens and teachers to improve management and education levels, which is conducive to improving the overall quality of the education industry and effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of students.

Hu Yunyun said that in addition to punishing the schools and teachers involved in accordance with laws and regulations, the education department should also give full play to the role of supervision and urge schools and teachers to carry out education work in accordance with laws and regulations; Schools should formulate standardized management systems and supervision mechanisms, strengthen the supervision and training of teachers, improve selection standards, find out the psychological situation of teachers, and when recruiting, do not hire personnel who have had violent behavior in the past; Teachers themselves should also fully tap students' talents, actively guide them positively, improve their own education level and professional quality, and put an end to the use of violence to discipline students.

Cai Hailong believes that to eradicate the frequent corporal punishment and abuse in preschool education, it is necessary for the government, schools, society and other parties to work together to achieve coordinated governance.

"From the level of the state and the government, the current urgent need to pay attention to is to accelerate the process of pre-school education legislation, and actively assume the responsibility for the development and management of pre-school education, on this basis, establish and improve the supervision mechanism of kindergarten management, through law enforcement inspection and education supervision, etc., to promote the kindergarten to continuously improve the level of management." Cai Hailong said that from the perspective of the kindergarten itself, on the one hand, it is necessary to improve the internal management system in strict accordance with the principle of governing education according to law, and incorporate the rule of law into the routine work of kindergartens, so that kindergartens, management, education and teaching are in line with the requirements of the rule of law; On the other hand, it is necessary to actively carry out targeted education and publicity on the rule of law, enhance the awareness and literacy of preschool teachers about the rule of law, and effectively improve the ability to use rule of law thinking and methods to analyze and deal with practical problems in education protection activities.

Cai Hailong believes that fundamentally speaking, in order to ensure that children get safe and high-quality preschool education, it is also necessary for the whole society to support and care about preschool education, increase investment in preschool education, improve the status and treatment of preschool teachers, and create a good ecological environment for the development of preschool education.

"It is worth noting that although the above measures have helped to reduce the incidence of student injuries to a certain extent, it is still difficult to fundamentally eliminate such phenomena from the practice of other countries. In order to fundamentally eliminate corporal punishment or disguised corporal punishment, we still need to change the concept of education and reform the way of education, teaching and management in schools. Cai Hailong said.