Beaten to death at school

A student should not have lost his life over being tardy, we hope to see justice served to the teacher in this matter.

In the latest reminder of how far our education system is from progress, a teacher in Taxila is responsible for the death of an eighth grade student who died after being severely beaten with a stick for being late to school. For one late attendance, the student’s time on earth was cut short. As many of us might recall, corporal punishment has been very much a part of Pakistan’s school system. Even today, it may still be very much a part of our public and private school systems as another incident resulting in the death of a student occurred at a private school in Taxila not long before this incident — in August of last year.

Such deaths are preventable if teachers are given less power and if there is a proper disciplinary system in place. There are certainly alternatives to physical torture. These alternatives include marking a student down for grades or retaining him or her in the same grade for the next year if he or she fails to attend a minimum number of school days or is late to school too frequently. Another option is to give detention after school or during lunch hour for him or her to reflect on his behaviour. Unfortunately, students do not understand the importance of punctuality because perhaps their own teachers do not practise it. If students were taught about the importance of being punctual for keeping good reputations in front of future employers, they might care more about timely attendance.

Resultantly, this act of torture did not affect only this student. It affected all students of the school as the school was indefinitely shut down after the incident. Consequently, those students are missing out on valuable class time, rendering the need for a proper disciplinary system for students as well as for teachers who take to violence as a form of discipline. A student should not have lost his life over being tardy one day and we hope to see justice served to the teacher in this matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2012.