Says a 17-year-old boy cited in the United Nations 'World Report on Violence against Children': 'I have seen the harsh behaviour of teachers in schools and colleges. Every day there are severe punishments by teachers, so we remain very afraid in class. The teacher often makes a student stand up in class, scolds him with ugly words and teases him for being naughty or for not learning the lessons. It is very shameful as well as painful.'
If hauling a child to the front of the classroom and hitting them with a cane sounds like a scene from the 1950s, think again.
For many children, being beaten, caned and forced to endure severe physical punishments, often for transgressions as minor as failing to do their homework, remains part and parcel of school life.
This month's death (April 1) of a nine-year-old Malaysian boy - 15 hours after he was caned by his teacher - may have been caused by unrelated bleeding on the brain but the incident was just the latest addition to a catalogue of classroom abuse being reported from around the world.
From India, where a 12-year-old boy died of heatstroke after being forced to run laps of the school grounds, to Australia where some independent schools ask parents to sign a waiver allowing teachers to 'paddle' their children, it is clear that the 'spare the rod, spoil the child' school of thought has refused to die out.
Although Malaysia has signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which protects children from all forms of abuse, the country's law permits the use of caning in schools. Deputy education minister Wee Ka Siong said in early April that caning would be revived to curb discipline problems among pupils.