BANGLADESH

A schoolteacher of Debhata upazila in Satkhira district was sued on Saturday for beating up a second grade student and his mother with a wooden stick.

The student's mother Sonia Khatun filed the case with Debhata Police Station against Abdul Hannan Babul, 40, an assistant teacher of Chandpur Government Primary School.

The case details say the teacher beat up Sharaban Pervez Siam, 8, son of Sheikh Syed of Chandpur village, over a trivial matter on Thursday morning.

As the boy informed his mother Sonia Khatun, she went to the school and asked the teacher the reason for punishment. Angered at this, the teacher also beat up the student's mother.

Confirming the incident, officer in-charge of the Debhata Police Station Shahjahan Ali Khan told bdnews24.com that there are allegations that the teacher had also beaten up several other students in the past.

The High Court on Jan 13 last year declared physical punishment illegal in the educational institutions of the country.

Defining caning, beating or subjecting students to any cruel and inhuman punishment as 'misconduct' under the Government Servants Discipline and Appeal Rules 1985, it had directed the education ministry to ensure dissemination of the directives and regular inspection to prevent occurrences of corporal punishment.

It also directed the ministry to take actions against those in breach of the law.