Teacher on beating spree

Selim Majumdar

A school teacher in the capital's Rampura yesterday beat up 37 students of class six for failing to remember a topic they were taught before the Eid vacation.
Though the government has clamped a ban on corporal punishment to students at all educational institutions, Selim Majumdar clearly ignored the ban and caned his students indiscriminately.
A teacher of English and assistant headmaster of Khaled Haider Memorial High School, Selim also kept the students confined within the school compound for over three hours, claimed the injured students.
The students, mostly girls, received treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital and other local clinics.
Fatema Akhter, a victim, said “Around 1:10pm, he [Selim] asked us about the topic we had been taught before the Eid vacation. As we could not remember it, he got furious and started hitting us with a cane ruthlessly.”
Hearing the screams of the students, another teacher Khadiza Begum swept into the scene from the adjacent classroom and pacified him, Fatema added.
“After the incident, Selim did not allow us to leave the school compound,” said Shantona Akhter, another victim.
However, students from other classes managed to inform the guardians of the victims about the incident. The guardians later reached the school along with police and Selim was arrested.
Delwar Hossain Khan, officer-in-charge of Rampura Police Station, said Selim had admitted to caning the students so that, in his words, they become more attentive to their studies.
Students of the school alleged that Selim had beaten up eight other students a week ahead of the vacation. At that time, Haripada Sarkar, headmaster of the school, issued a warning against Selim upon receipt of complaints from the students.
A case was filed with the police station last night accusing Selim.
The High Court on January 13 this year declared all kinds of corporal punishment to students in schools and madrasas illegal and unconstitutional.
The court also directed the government to enforce the guideline, which was formulated to ban all kinds of corporal punishment.
Earlier on August 9, 2010 the government slapped an outright ban on physical punishment of students at educational institutions in the country.