Bringing back suspensions and allowing teachers to transfer students who behave badly will cause these parents to think twice. Being suspended from school also carries with it a certain stigma that is likely to make even the rowdiest students improve their behaviour. Forcing them to change schools, which means forcing them to adjust to new environments and unfamiliar schoolmates, is the ultimate punishment that most of them would want to avoid. According to the ministry, suspensions can be imposed on students with behavioural problems in three circumstances - when they exhibit excessive aggressiveness, when they commit extremely immoral acts and in instances of violence. The reintroduction of these measures was prompted by petitions from parents whose children have been victims of violent classmates or who have suffered physical assaults by students from rival schools.

Many teachers welcome the reintroduction of suspensions and school transfers as punishments of last resort. They reason that without these measures they have no way of maintaining order in the classroom and that this in turn negatively affects the quality of education for everyone. In the case where a habitually misbehaving student has to be punished by being transferred to another school, the ministry provides guidelines requiring the administrator of the school sending the student away to make arrangements to find another school that is willing to take the student.

However, such punishments must not be meted out as a way of getting rid of students with behavioural problems. They may need professional help from social workers and psychologists to help them become better adjusted and to get along better with their classmates and teachers. There must be a methodical way to monitor students and a system of evaluation to gauge the effectiveness of such punitive actions.

In 2005, educators and child-rights advocates successfully campaigned to revoke suspensions and transfers as punishments along with caning. At the time the Education Ministry issued regulations stating only four types of punishment for students were permitted: admonishment, parole, deduction of disciplinary points and mandatory recreational or rehabilitation courses. The problem of misbehaving students is particularly acute in government high schools in poor neighbourhoods in Bangkok, where the typical classroom is crammed with up to 60 students. The overcrowding of classrooms in government high schools is a problem that the Education Ministry must urgently find a way to solve because teachers are finding themselves unable to give proper attention to such a large number of students.

Fast-changing economic and social developments and accelerating urbanisation in recent years have transformed Thailand. The family structure characterised by extended families living together in rural settings is increasingly being replaced by a new structure of urban-dwelling nuclear families with both parents working outside the home.

The problem with many of today's youths has a lot to do with absent or unavailable parents who fail to instil in their offspring the sense of self-worth and discipline that they require to mature socially, emotionally and mentally. All too often schools are left to their own devices to deal with problem students while negligent parents are let off the hook. Whatever measures school administrators and teachers choose to discipline the students in their care, parents must be required to play an active part. Perhaps the best way to tackle youths' problem is to teach the parents better parenting.