I refer to the letter, "Students and parents not showing teachers the respect they deserve" (May 25).

When I asked my former form teacher recently why she dished out physical punishment in the 1970s when she taught me in primary school, she said: "It worked. The grades improved."

Back then, many parents had little or no education and were busy making a living, so they relied heavily on teachers to help bring up their children.

Teachers had full authority from the parents and the school to manage their students as they saw fit, with physical punishment accepted as a form of tough love.

Today, parents are better educated and their children less naive.

While physical punishment is no longer acceptable in class, students or their parents cannot be allowed to undermine the teacher's authority.

Teachers must have the authority to have disrespectful students removed from class and, if necessary, removed from the school if their parents are equally disrespectful.

Liu Fook Thim