BUTTERWORTH, MALAYSIA - Non-disciplinary teachers are reminded not to strike pupils, as they are not authorised to use corporal punishment.

National Union of the Teaching Profession Penang branch chairman Lim Ming Tzong said only disciplinary teachers and headmasters could use corporal punishment to discipline pupils.

"Such teachers could alternatively use demerit points against pupils who misbehaved in the school.

"But, it is best for the school's head to resolve matters pertaining to pupils' disciplinary problems," he said in an interview yesterday.

On Friday, the father of an 11-year-old pupil stormed into SK Juru in Bukit Mertajam and slapped a teacher for slapping the boy a day earlier for misbehaving in the school library.

The 30-year-old non-disciplinary teacher, who sustained a swollen left cheek, later lodged a report at the Bukit Tengah police station.

Lim said although the teacher should not have slapped the pupil in the particular case, it was also not right for the parent to hit the teacher for disciplining his son.