Singapore punishes school bullying with caning: but only for boys, not girls

Credits: @AmnesUK/X

I came across the new measure introduced in Singapore against bullying in schools: caning for boys who bully others. The absurd part that stood out to me is the fact that it applies only to males.

If a male student bullies someone he can receive up to three cane strikes as physical punishment, while for girls there are suspensions, school detention or lowering of conduct grades. So we have the exact behavior, but the punishment is decided depending on sex, that sounds discrimination to me.

And this is something that we can even read in a general context, which shows how boys and girls are treated differently in many contexts: males are automatically seen as more aggressive to punish harshly, while girls are treated with much more caution even when they do exactly the same things.

I've been to school even though I wasn't bullied but honestly, anyone has probably witnessed that female bullying absolutely exists and is not at all lighter or less violent, maybe less visible and more subtle, but it exists. It is exactly like every other form of bullying consisting in exclusion, mocking, isolating people etc... things that can psychologically mess any student up for years.

Yet this is how they decide in Singapore that girls are less dangerous, while boys need to be controlled even through physical violence.

I can’t help but wonder what the international reaction would be if it were the other way around with a school law that physically punished only girls and not boys, there would be protests everywhere... yet for this rule in Singapore, nobody will protest.

References: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/06/singapore-caning-school-bullies