Corporal punishment: DCO seeks report into beating incident

Seventh class student had quarrelled with his teacher’s nephew۔

VEHARI: District Coordination Officer Ahsan Bhutta on Friday sought a report from District Monitoring Officer (Education) Amir Ali after a seventh class student was allegedly beaten up by his teacher for quarrelling with the latter’s nephew. The student was later kicked out of the school by the headmaster when he complained against the teacher.

Police said Zahid Ali, a student of government school in Chak 521-EB, quarrelled with his teacher’s Muhammad Farooq’s nephew during break time. When Farooq saw them fight, police said, he beat up Ali with a stick. When Ali complained to the headmaster, Farooq Azam, he kicked the boy out of the school. Later, Ali’s father, Zafar Iqbal, and parents of some of his class fellows gathered outside the press club and protested against the teacher and the headmaster. They dispersed when the DCO arrived at the scene and ordered an inquiry into the matter. The DCO gave the monitoring officer a week to submit the report.

The headmaster told police that Ali was not kicked out of the school. He said the parents were exaggerating and had turned a “small argument between children into a big issue”.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2012.