School teachers are subjecting students to corporal punishment despite a ban on inflicting any kind of physical punishment.
As some students and guardians told the Dhaka Tribune, such practice is imposed even in some city schools, particularly for not doing homework and for quarreling with fellow students.
Earlier on January 13, 2011, the High Court banned all sorts of corporal punishment such as caning, beating, chaining, forced-haircut and confinement in all primary and secondary schools and madrasahs.
The court also sought actions against those teachers who are engaged in inflicting corporal punishment on the students, terming such it as an act of extra-judicial punishment.
After the High Court’s ruling, the government banned such corporal punishment in all educational institutions across the country.
But some incidents of corporal punishment were reported in the last few weeks. Show-cause notices were issued in some cases and in some others, parents demonstrated in front of the schools.
Seeking anonymity, a parent from Dhaka city’s Mirpur area said her son had been subjected to corporal punishment in class because he had failed to do his homework.
“My son was so scared that he had not gone to school for the next two days.”
The condition is even worse in rural areas where a number of such acts of corporal punishment were reported in the last few weeks.
On June 11, a math teacher from a Sunamganj school gave 48 used razor blades to her students and ordered them to cut their hands and legs as the students didn’t do their homework.
No student had completed their 30 sums. The incident drew criticism across the country and the teacher was later transferred from the school.
A madrasa teacher was arrested in Shahjahanpur Railway Colony in the capital on May 20 on charge of cruelly torturing his 11-year-old student.
Nur Mohammad, a teacher of Allama MA Jalil Hifza Academy, tied the student with ropes and beat him up. His father has claimed that the teacher even hung his son from the ceiling fan.
In Nilphamari, a show cause notice was issued to a primary schoolteacher on May 12 for caning a student in Nilphamari Sadar upazila.
Golam Mostofa, 11, a class V student of Manushmara Government Primary School was beaten up by his mathematics teacher Mohaimen Islam.
The student was admitted to Nilphamari 100-bed Hospital with injuries in several parts of his body.
In the same district, a teacher of Purbo Chhatnai Colony High School, Shamima Akhter beat Ashraful Islam, 12,a Class VII student. Ashraful was admitted to Dimla Upazila Health Complex with injuries.
Parents demonstrated in front of the school on June 22 demanding punishment of the teacher. Dr Anup Kumar of Dimla Health Complex said they had found signs of beating all over the body’s body.
Education officials said teachers had been strictly instructed not to inflict any sort of corporal penalty on the students but they were not seemingly paying heed to the instruction as such incidents still continued.
“We have issued letters several times to teachers not to punish students physically,”Director general of the Directorate of Primary Educatrion, Shyamal Kanti Ghosh, told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said whenever they were informed of any allegation, they looked into the matter and took action.
Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education Director General Fahima Khatun also echoed Shyamal and said they had also given instructions.
Abu Sayeed Bhuiyan, headmaster of city’s Government Laboratory High School, told the Dhaka Tribune government and NGOs often arrange some workshops guiding teachers not to torture students.
He said teachers had long been practicing corporal punishment in schools and it might take time to fully put an end to such practices.
“But the situation is changing. Many teachers are avoiding corporal punishment,” he said, adding that teachers of this school strictly follow the government guidelines on corporal punishment.
