The Disciplinary Council of the Department of Education and Training of Vung Liem District, Vinh Long Province, has just met and proposed to handle the principal and two officials of Trung Hieu Secondary School related to the incident of students fighting at school on September 23.
The disciplinary council determined that Mr. Vo Huu Tran - Principal of Trung Hieu Secondary School - deliberately concealed the students' fight, did not report it to superiors, and only resolved it internally, causing public outrage.
The Disciplinary Council of the Department of Education and Training of Vung Liem District unanimously proposed that the competent authority discipline Mr. Vo Huu Tran with a warning. It is proposed that the competent authority continue to handle the officials (homeroom teacher and teacher in charge) for their responsibilities related to the fight.
First of all, we welcome the proposal to discipline officials and teachers of the Disciplinary Council of Vung Liem district. This proposal shows the seriousness, no cover-up, looking straight at the truth, going to the bottom of the problem of the leaders of the Department of Education and Training of Vung Liem district in particular and Vinh Long province in general.
But from this disciplinary proposal, it shows a very serious problem of the leaders and teachers of a school related to the issue of school violence. That is the attitude of covering up in a closed-door manner, instead of reporting to superiors to see the nature and resolve the incident clearly and transparently.
There are many things, it is true that sometimes we need to "close the door and talk to each other" within the internal scope because "it is embarrassing for both sides". But with school violence that is prolonged and repeated over a long period of time like at Trung Hieu Secondary School, covering it up to "close the door and talk to each other" is an attitude of not daring to face the truth, an act of condoning.
Notably, not only the principal, but also two officials of this school - one homeroom teacher, one general teacher - were also identified by the Disciplinary Council of the Department of Education and Training of Vung Liem district as "not having solutions to manage students and prevent students from fighting" and "not fulfilling their responsibilities in managing student discipline, not caring for students when they were beaten by a group of friends" along with many other shortcomings.
Both the principal and these two teachers must be severely disciplined, commensurate with the situation, to serve as a deterrent and set an example.
The concealment of school violence as in Trung Hieu Secondary School may not be a general reality of the education sector’s attitude towards this issue. But it is also difficult to guarantee that this is just an isolated incident and will not happen again in other schools and localities.
School violence has been and is a burning issue in the education sector across the country. Preventing violence effectively is a very difficult problem that has not yet been solved. And it will certainly be even more difficult if there are still principals who hide the truth to handle it internally like this!
