Despite ban, teachers at Kaithal govt school use the rod to ‘mend’ students

Geetanjali Gayatri

Kaithal, June 2

Despite a ban on corporal punishment in schools, the practice seems rampant in government school, Hajwana, where teachers use it recklessly to make the “errant” students fall in line.

While a village panchayat-appointed mathematics teacher Kavita was found to be using a wooden ruler to hit a Class IX student because he was “mentally unstable”, the school’s Hindi teacher, Jaipal, “hit” a girl student of Class VII before pushing her for failing to do her class work “properly” in a second class visited by The Tribune team.

In her defence, Kavita said, “The boy is mentally unstable and sometimes goes out of control”. An interaction with the boy revealed that he was only “disturbing” the class by changing his seat which prompted the teacher to repeatedly hit him with a ruler. The Hindi teacher explained that the girl student had faltered in writing the alphabet correctly for which he hit her to create a “scare” to improve her performance.

Though both teachers remained silent when asked about a ban on physical punishment, the school headmaster, Surender Singh, said that he was unaware that teachers were resorting to corporal punishment since they knew it had been banned by the government.

“I have dual charge and cannot keep constant watch on them. However, all teachers have been told that physical punishment is not allowed especially in the case of girl students. I will hold another meeting to warn the teachers again,” he said after which a meeting was also held.

The village sarpanch, Shallu, said that she visits the school occasionally but had received no such complaints. “Since it has been brought to my notice, I will visit the school again,” she said. The ACS, School Education, G Anupama, said that corporal punishment was banned across schools and cannot be condoned. “We will look into this,” she stated.

Teachers warned

I have dual charge and cannot keep constant watch on teachers. However, all teachers have been told that physical punishment is not allowed especially in the case of girl students. I will hold another meeting to warn the teachers again. — Surender Singh, headmaster