RAHIM YAR KHAN: An inquiry has been launched into the alleged corporal punishment to a sixth class student of the Government Girls School Mahmoodabad, Iqbalabad, by a teacher on Friday.

The only ‘mistake’ of the student, who got rusticated from the school, was that her mother had participated in a protest against the school management over the drinking water issue. The DC office has launched an inquiry into the matter.

Waseem Tahir, the father of the girl, called the police helpline over the issue and registered a complaint with the Iqbalabad Police Station.

He said his daughter went to school on Friday when her class teacher questioned her as to why her mother had participated in the protest against the school. Her teacher beat her up and pushed her out of the school premises.

The residents of Mahmoodabad were agitating against the school principal over the lack of basic facilities and whenever students complained to the school head about the issues, including drinking water, she ignored them.

They said almost 730 girl students of the school were forced to drink contaminated water. They alleged that the school head had collected the amount of Rs217,000 from the students for installation of a filtration plant but did not provide the facility.

They also alleged that the school principal was embezzling the non-salary budget. Due to these reasons, the students and their parents held protests for the last few days outside the school.

District Education Officer (Secondary) Malik Aamir told Dawn that it was just a quarrel between the school head and an SST teacher who wanted to install a water filtration plant.

Initially, the CEO education office was looking into the matter but later the residents of Mehmoodabad complained to the deputy commissioner and now Additional Deputy Commissioner General Qandeel Fatima Memon was inquiring into this issue, Aamir said.

He said the SST teacher had been transferred from the school while the school principal would also be posted to some other school soon and the matter would be settled in next couple of days.

DC Khuram Pervez and ADCG Memon were contacted by this correspondent but they didn’t reply to the repeated calls to give their stance.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2024