TAXILA: A ninth grader lost his hearing ability after allegedly being beaten by his teacher.

The victim’s brother, Lal Khan, told journalists that his brother Shahzaib was tortured by his teacher.

He said when the teacher was asked about it, he said he only behaved this way with students when they did not study properly. A complaint was registered with the relevant authorities.

Mr Khan said incidents like this happened at educational institutions frequently in rural areas, despite anti-corporal punishment slogans raised by the Punjab education department.

Punjab had banned corporal punishment in schools in 2018, however it is yet to be implemented properly.

When contacted Chief Executive Officer (Education) Attock Mohsin Abbas said an inquiry into the alleged torture of a student by the teacher of a private school had been initiated.

He said the inquiry would be conducted by a team of the education department led by Deputy District Education Officer Syed Taqi Abbas Shah.

Any kind of physical harm to students is strictly banned and teachers involved in such cases will be dealt with severity whereas action will be taken against the school administration, he said, adding that teachers in Attock, like the rest of Punjab, would face police action if they continued to follow the policy of ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2022