Teacher thrashes four-year-old for not doing homework

Teacher arrested; police await medical report to take further action

MULTAN: A teacher was arrested on Friday for beating a minor student reportedly for not doing his homework. The police arrested the female teacher after parents of the four-year-old, along with residents of Shujaabad, protested over the issue on Friday.

The protesters blocked Raja Ram Chowk for several hours and demanded legal action against the teacher. The police said a case would not be registered till a medical report was provided to them. The protesters dispersed after being assured of legal action.



The student’s father Muhammad Afzal, a resident of Shujaabad, said his son Fatahuddin was a student at Suffa Middle Public school, which is affiliated with Punjab Education Foundation. “My son fell unconscious when his teacher beat him with a rod on October 20,” he told The Express Tribune.  “Around 10am I received a phone call from the school that my child had fallen unconscious.”

Afzal said he rushed to the school. He took his son to District Headquaters Hospital Multan.  He added his son gained consciousness after an hour. When Fatahuddin was asked what had happened to him, he said his teacher had beaten him with a rod for not doing the homework. “My son showed me the marks of physical torture on his body, saying he will not go to school anymore,” said Afzal.



When The Express Tribune contacted the principal of school, she declined to comment. Corporal punishment is not new in the schools of Multan.



In August 2011, a schoolteacher allegedly tortured a ninth grader after he refused to seek after-school tuition from him. According to several students at Government Islamia High School, the schoolteacher, Ghazanfar Abbas, tortured Samiullah after he refused to take tuition from him.

Similarly, in June 2012, a seminary teacher was arrested by Shujaabad police for damaging the left eye of an eight-year-old student. According to the child’s father Muhammad Rafiq, his son was beaten up for being absent from the seminary.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2016.