MALAYSIA'S BROKEN SYSTEM
Andreas Dorn 
The recent violence at Malaysian schools resulting in the tragic death or r@#$ of pupils causes an uproar in society. What has gone wrong? Read on.
MALAYSIA'S BROKEN SYSTEM
Recent extreme cases of violence in Malaysian schools are deeply troubling.
Discussions raging on what to do about it. Caning? Forbid mobile phones? mental health screening before school starts?
I often sit in cafés or mamak stalls and see a pattern that worries me.
A toddler reaches out for attention and parents give the phone, instead of a human response.
A child fidgets or talks too much and an iPad is handed over to keep them quiet.
Those moments are opportunities for connection, emotional attunement, and social learning where a child learns how to relate, wait, and listen.
But when screens replace conversations, something deeper is lost.
Language.
Empathy.
Emotional control.
We are now starting to see the long-term cost.
We have replaced humans with a screen.
Studies across Malaysia and internationally paint a troubling pictures:
👉 A 2020 Malaysian study found a significant link between exposure to violent media (videos, online games) and increased verbal aggression among secondary school students.
👉 Another study of nearly 1,000 Malaysian teens found that media exposure predicted both bullying and victimisation, accounting for almost a third of the behaviour.
👉 Research covering over 4,000 public-school students showed that time spent on social media correlated with bullying roles, whether as victims, bullies, or both.
👉 Globally, studies reveal that repeated exposure to online violence and humiliation content desensitises children and distorts what they perceive as “normal.”
The violent incidents we’ve seen recently in Malaysian schools are signals of a broader shift.
A system is broken.
Social media and short-form video platforms have become the silent educators.
It teaches children what to value, how to gain attention, and how to assert dominance.
When children are emotionally disconnected at home and socially conditioned online, classrooms become the first place that disconnection plays out through defiance, bullying, or violence.
We don’t fix this by banning phones alone. We can fix it by rebuilding human connection.
👉 Parents need to reclaim conversation time and any minute of undivided attention does more for a child’s brain than an hour of cartoons.
👉 Schools need to bring media and emotional literacy into the classroom, teaching students how what they watch shapes what they think.
👉 Teachers need tools to reach the unconscious patterns behind behaviour.
If we want calmer classrooms, safer schools, and emotionally balanced children, it starts long before they enter the gates.
And there are studies showing that children's behaviour has improved at a school where pupils lock their phones away for most of the day.
But it all starts with parents putting the phone down and looking their child in the eye.
Because the outcome of the education is the result you see right now.
#unstuck
#asiaminddynamics
#education
#bullying
Categories: : mind, education, school, bully, crimes in school