Mirajul Alam, a Class VII student of Kalidah SC High School in Feni, is now lying in a bed in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University after being tortured by
his teacher over an altercation with his classmate.
Mirajul, 14, has been in the psychiatric department in the university hospital since July 14, when he was brought to Dhaka from his home in Feni. He was tortured by his mathematics teacher, Kob Kumar Das, on July 10.
His father said that he had been beaten up and tortured for picking up a quarrel with his classmate.
‘He screamed and begged mercy when his teachers was beating him,’ his father Mansur Alam told New Age.
His mother Laila Begum said that the boy had been tortured after the other boy which whom he picked up the quarrel lodged a complaint with their mathematics teacher. ‘He is not shocked and mentally disturbed.’
Mirajul, now in the BSMMU hospital bed, cannot talk properly and he even cannot eat. As his father was narrating what happened to him, he started trembling with fear.
Physicians said that the boy might develop a long-term psychological disorder, his father said.
Ruhul Amin, the headteacher of the school, admitted that such an incident had taken place in the school but said that the boy had been mentally unfit beforehand and he had not been beaten up to the degree allegations were coming in.
Asked about any punitive action against the teacher who had beaten him, the headteacher said, ‘It is for the managing committee to see. The teacher has only six months left before he retires.’
The accused teacher or the managing committee members could not be reached for comments.
The High Court in August 2010 ordered a ban on corporal punishment in education institutions as such punishment hampers the development of children.
The High Court, after the government had banned corporal punishment, in a ruling on January 14, 2011 observed that corporal punishment of students in primary and secondary schools and madrassahs was a criminal offence.
Courtesy of New Age
