First speaker Gov

This House Believes That Parents Should Be Held Responsible For Their school-going Children
Discipline Problem

Thank you, mdm speaker. A very good morning I bid to our chairperson, our honourable adjudicators, ever
precise time keeper, my most worthy oppositions members and members of the floor. The motion of this
debate is This House Believes That Parents Should Be Held Responsible For Their school-going Children
Discipline Problem. Let me start this debate by defining the key terms of the definitions.
(a) According to the 7th Edition of Oxford Advanced Learner English Dictionary, the word parents means
the ones who beget, give birth to, or nurture and raise a child , or a father or mother.
(b) While should is a modal word to show what is right, appropriate that is expected as true at or will
happen.
(c) held responsible means carrying out a job or is in charge of something or somebody.
(d) Both the U.N. convention and Malaysias Child Act define a child as anyone under the age of 18.
Therefore, school-going children is defined as children under the age of 18, who are still going to school.
(e) The word discipline is defined as the practice of training to obey rules and orders and punishing them
if they do not and control behaviour or situation that results from this training. and problems means that
something that is difficult to deal with or to understand. Hence, discipline problem here, we, the
government team defines as the delinquency or misbehaviours that occur as a result of the failure of obeying
rules.

We, the government team propose our stand that this house believes that parents are in charge of or have the
responsibilities of handling the misbehaviours of their under-aged children who are studying at schools.
Therefore, we strongly agree with the motion today, which is, This House Believes That Parents Should Be
Held Responsible For Their school-going Children Discipline Problem.

Before I go on with my point, please allow me to introduce the roles of our speakers. We, the government
team, are going to put forward to you three points. I, as the prime minister will be highlighting on parents

responsibility as their childrens legal guardians. Here with me to support this motion is my deputy
prime minister, who will be expanding on two points, which are First, Parents are morally responsible for
their children and Second the collaborative approach which requires the commitment of the parents.
My third minister will rebut all the arguments presented by the opposition members.

Members of the floor,

Parents Should Be Held Responsible for Their school-going Children Discipline Problem.
As Nasima stipulated in The Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility in ASEAN: Legal and Human Rights
Perspectives , anybody who is below 18 years old will be treated differently from an adult, particularly in
respect of procedure and punishment. In terms of civil liability, generally those who are below 18 years old
will not be held liable, as mentioned in the Child Act 2001.

Ladies and gentlemen,

even the World Child Act acknowledge the fact that children under 18 years old have not reached the level
of maturity to be held liable for their own actions, who else is to be bearing the responsibility if not their
parents?

Members of the floor, many countries such as UK and Michigan have started practicing punishing parents
for their children's misbehaviour. This is to alert the parents of their legal parental responsibility as guardians
and require parents "to exercise reasonable parental control" over children under 18.

How does this make sense to you that parents are punished for not fulfilling their legal parental
responsibility?
According to Daily Mail, in U.K, a mother was jailed for 60 days her daughters truancy. It was forced to act
as a last resort because there had been no improvement in school attendance. Surprisingly, the daughter who
initially giving so many excuses for her absentee managed to make it to school ever since the mother was
jailed. This is because I quote from the daughter who played truant, who said that It wasn't right my mum
has been punished for something I did. and they said they had learnt the lesson.

Members of the floor,

the above example is not meant to say that parents should be punished for their childrens misbehaviours,
but, we wish to highlight how important parents legal responsibility it is to help solving the childrens
disciplinary problems. Parents should always bear in mind and be aware of the fact that, they are legally held
responsible for their childrens behaviours and actions. Therefore, if they do not fulfil this, they have to bear
the consequences of the disciplinary problems caused by their children.
Ladies and gentlemen,
According to the Robert A. Heinleim, a psychologist in society and family welfare, over 90% juvenile
delinquencies are committed by those denied access to a father. He likens the rearing of kids to that of house
training a puppy; you don't say "it's just a puppy" "it is too young to know better", "time to teach it when it is
older", etc., then, when it reaches 6 months, say "it is now old enough to know better - get rid of it".
Similarly with kids, "he is only a child" "he is too young to know better" "I'll teach him when he is older and
I have time to bother", etc., then when the kid reaches eighteen "he's now old enough to know better - take
him out and shoot him". Like puppies, children need to learn the rules of their family society if they are to
have any hope of becoming responsible members of the wider Society with its more complex rules. Due to
that, it is the parents legal responsibility to teach their children the societal rules and help them to grow up
as a responsible member of the society.
Before I rest my case, I would like to reaffirm our stand that, this house believes that parents are in charge of
or have the responsibilities of handling the misbehaviours of their under-aged children who are studying at
schools and therefore, we strongly agree with the motion of todays debate that This House Believes That
Parents Should Be Held Responsible For Their school-going Children Discipline Problem.
Thank you.