BENGALURU: Two students of Class 9 were allegedly beaten up by their Social Science teacher on Thursday evening in what is the fourth case of corporal punishment reported in the city in the last 30 days. The incident occurred at Saraswati Vidyaniketan School in Chandapura, which is affiliated to the state board of education.
One boy sustained deep injury marks from the punishment and reported it to his parents. Following this, his parents staged a protest in the school against the teacher on Friday. The teacher, according to the parents, tried to defend his actions which led the irate parents to file a complaint with Chandapura police.
Following this, officials of the education department visited the school and conducted an enquiry. Block Education Officer Ramesh told TNIE, “As the parents had already filed a complaint with the police, we will issue notice to the school insisting that action be taken against that teacher. As the inquiry is going on, the teacher has to be kept under suspension.”
According to Arjun Kishore, the punishment was meted out to his nephew though he was not the offender. “The teacher who could not control the bad behaviour of some other student has beaten up our child,” he claimed.
According to the parents, the issue began when the teacher asked the student to pass on some notes. The student in front of the one that the teacher was addressing found his classmate asleep at his desk. When he asked the sleeping boy to pass on the notes, he was allegedly abused by the one who was forced out of his slumber, which led to both getting into a fight exchanging abusive words.
“This is not the first time. That boy is known for his bad behaviour in the classroom. Why did the teacher hit my son?” the parent questioned.
However, the school authorities and the teacher defended their actions. “The two boys were fighting and they are not primary schoolchildren. They are grown up, they were fighting. What do you expect a teacher to do? And it is not the first time we have warned the parents about their wards’ behaviour and insisted not to use foul language. Despite this, they continue doing the same.”
‘Kids can misuse laws’
Talking about the increasing cases of corporal punishment, the teachers even feel that some kids are smart enough to misuse the rules and law. “Even when the kids know what they have done is wrong and why the teacher hit them or yelled at them, the kids make it an issue after going back home knowing that they can take advantage of the incident,” said one of the teachers working with a private school. Another teacher said, “Many times, I myself have heard kids discussing about child line number and no-detention policy. We teachers are helpless and cannot control or manage them.”