A parent in HCM City several days ago sent a letter to Nguoi Lao Dong’s editorial board, complaining that a physical-exercise teacher at the Hung Long Secondary School in Binh Chanh District of HCM City beat his daughter’s foot, causing it to become black and blue, because she had forgotten to tie her shoelaces during the lesson.

The parent said B, his daughter, could not understand why the teacher beat her foot with a ruler when she bent down to try to tie her shoelaces.

The girl experienced pain in her foot later, and the situation got serious the next day, when her parents had to bring her to school because she could not walk.

Reporters have found that B was in her period on that day. In principle, B could ask for the teacher’s permission to be absent at the lesson. However, B still decided to attend the lesson.

The problem was that B refused to stand in line as ordered by the teacher. Therefore, the teacher beat B in her foot as he lost his temper.

Another parent, whose son is a student at the Chuong Duong Primary School in District 1, HCM City, told reporters that a teacher “threw down a challenge” to students and parents on his Facebook.

The teacher reportedly used slang words which the parent could not imagine a teacher would use.

“The teacher called a parent ‘ac nhan’ (scoundrel) and threatened to give a student bad marks on his the semester-end exam paper,” the parent said.

“I’ll let him know what stuff I am made off,” she wrote on Facebook.

The parent, who related the story, said he felt “dizzy” when reading the teacher’s words.

“I cannot understand why a teacher curses at students, scolds parents and uses such bad language,” he said. “I don’t know what would happen with students who have such a bad teacher.”

Pham Thi Thu Thao from Hung Long Secondary School told reporters that after hearing the complaint from B’s parents, the school’s leaders came to meet the parents and offered an apology. The teacher, who beat T, admitted his fault and apologized to the student and her parents.

Le Ngoc Diep, former head of the primary education division of the HCM City Education and Training Department, noted that many teachers lacked necessary pedagogical skills.

“Education schools produce teachers, but they do not prepare them to behave correctly towards students in special cases,” he said.

The headmaster of a general school in HCM City attributed this to the inadequate curricula used by pedagogical universities.

“At schools, future teachers mostly receive professional knowledge, while there are very few lessons on classroom management skills,” she noted. “Good teachers need to have many other skills. They need to be good at communicating with students, and be creative in their teaching methods.”