PULL your ears and do 50 squats each.

Fight with your brother for 15 mins.

Hold this sign above your head and stand by the main gate.

Related link: » Teachers get punished too

These were some of the ways a teacher and the principal of an after-school daycare centre in Seremban, Malaysia, punished a pair of twin brothers.

The boys, 11, admitted that they were punished because they had been mischievous and had used swear words.

But they said the methods of punishment made them "lose face".

When their mother, Madam Zhang Yu Lan, found out about what happened, she was so upset that she made a police report in September, reported China Press.

On Monday, she held a press conference, hosted by MCA's public complaints service bureau.

Madam Zhang said the boys started going to the daycare centre in March as she had to help her husband manage his business.

She said she had known that her sons had been punished earlier, but had not known the severity of the situation.

It was not till May that the boys told her the details of their punishments.

Madam Zhang said: "I agree that children should be punished when they do something wrong, but do it according to the education ministry's rules."

While physical injuries can heal quickly, the psychological damage and loss of self-esteem suffered by children, who are still developing, will not, she said.

After she found out about the matter, she went to see the principal, who verified what the he sons had said.

At the press conference, Madam Zhang produced the 20-minute recorded conversation that she had with the principal.

The principal could be heard apologising profusely while giving reasons for the various punishments.

Madam Zhang said her sons had also been punished by having their mouths taped shut and their hands bound with masking tape before being paraded in front of other students.

The boys said that the punishment was for talking too much. They said their hands were bound to stop them from removing the masking tape over their mouths.

"Once, when we fought, someone told the principal, so we had to beat each other for 15 minutes. If we stopped, we would be caned," said the twins.

50 squats

Another time, they said their principal had told them to do 50 squats because they had too much energy.

The brothers admitted that they had once pointed at a photograph of a teacher they did not like and swore loudly at it.

As a result, their punishment was to hold cards that said, "I will not use bad words again" above their heads and stand by the main gate from 2.30pm to 6.30pm.

They had to do this for a week.

The boys said: "We knew we were punished because we were naughty, but the way we were punished made us very embarrassed.

"And none of the other students were punished with such methods except for us."

During the press conference, the supervisor of the public complaints bureau telephoned the principal, who declined to comment for the time being.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

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