Educators have suggested that students who repeatedly bully or use violence on their peers should be transferred to special disciplinary schools on a short-term basis as a disciplinary measure.
The suggestion was made after many teachers said in a survey released yesterday that the coverage of school violence cases in the media had put more pressure on them. But they were frustrated that they had no deterrents to deal with the problem.
'Physical punishment has already been ruled out by law. Schools feel helpless in dealing with misbehaving students, especially those who have not yet left the nine-year free and compulsory education system,' the vice-president of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, Wong Kwan-yu, said yesterday.
Mr Wong, who is also a secondary school principal, said unruly students should be sent for a few months to the seven Social Development Schools as a disciplinary move.
The schools offer education for seven to 15-year-olds with behavioural or emotional problems.
Students would be allowed to return to their own school if they showed a good record, he added.
Alternatively, Mr Wong said the schools could exchange their unruly students with each other for a short term.