IN Loco parentis is Latin for “in place of a parent” and “instead of a parent”. 

Black’s Law Dictionary defines the term as “charged factitiously with a parents’ rights, duties and responsibilities”. 

John Scott, Lord Eldon explained that a person “meaning to put himself in loco parentis” is one “in the situation of the person described as the lawful father of the child” (Ex parte Pye, 18 Ves 140, 154).

He is “a person assuming the parental character, or discharging parental duties” (Sir William Grant, 19 Ves 412).

Simply put, a person in loco parentis means a person taking upon himself the duty of a parent, much like a teacher or a lecturer – that is, an educator. 

That an educator takes upon himself the duty of a parent is beautifully penned by National Laureate the late Usman Awang as follows:

Dialah ibu dialah bapa juga sahabat 

Alur kesetiaan mengalirkan nasihat 

Pemimpin yang ditauliahkan segala umat 

Seribu tahun katanya menjadi hikmat. 

 

Jika hari ini seorang perdana Menteri berkuasa 

Jika hari ini seorang raja menaiki takhta 

Jika hari ini seorang presiden sebuah negara 

Jika hari ini seorang ulama yang mulia 

Jika hari ini seorang peguam menang bicara 

Jika hari ini seorang penulis terkemuka 

Jika hari ini siapa sahaja menjadi dewasa.

 

Sejarahnya dimulakan oleh seorang guru biasa 

Dengan lembut sabarnya mengajar tulis-baca

Di mana-mana dia berdiri di muka muridnya 

Di sebuah sekolah mewah di ibu kota 

Di bangunan tua sekolah Hulu Terengganu 

Dia adalah guru mewakili seribu buku.

 

Semakin terpencil duduknya di ceruk desa 

Semakin bererti tugasnya kepada negara

Jadilah apa pun pada akhir kehidupanmu, guruku 

Budi yang diapungkan di dulangi ilmu 

Panggilan keramat “cikgu” kekal terpahat 

Menjadi kenangan ke akhir hayat. 

A teacher in loco parentis, if he berates his student, he does that for the benefit of the student – like any parent does. 

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, to berate is to criticise someone in an angry manner, as in the example: “His mother berated him for making a mess.”

When a teacher berates a student, he does not insult (menghina) or scorn (mencaci) the student. 

When a teacher berates a student, he does that in the discharge of his duty to the student as he stands in loco parentis for the student. 

If today the student is not a prime minister or a lawyer or a writer, he must be a person who is wiser (siapa sahaja menjadi dewasa).

Then he owes it to every one of his teachers who stands in loco parentis for him, any one of whom could have berated him somewhere, sometime ago. – March 31, 2022.

* Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.