PESHAWAR: The elementary and secondary education department on Saturday ordered an inquiry into the complaint of severe corporal punishment against a primary schoolteacher in the provincial capital.

Six students of the government primary school in the Tehkal Payan area were injured after allegedly being harshly beaten up by their teacher, Saifullah, with a stick.

The students were rushed to a local hospital, where doctors provided them with treatment.

“We have immediately transferred the schoolteacher and ordered an inquiry into the incident,” Peshawar district education officer Sajjad Khan told Dawn.

He said the inquiry officer, Janas Khan, the principal of a government high school, had been tasked with looking into the corporal punishment complaint within three days and producing the report.

“Nothing can be said about the nature of the wounds the students suffered until I receive the report from the doctors who examined them,” he said when asked to verify reports suggesting that the punishment caused hand fractures in some students.

The DEO said that there was no room for corporal punishment in schools as it was strictly prohibited.

Parents of the students

who were beaten up by the teacher also reported the incident to the Tehkal police station and demanded legal action against him.

They informed the police that their children, including Hazrat Mohammad, Nawab Ali, Noor Habib, Mohammad Rasool, Noorul Bashar, and Naik Mohammad, were enrolled in grade 4 at the Tehkal Payan primary school.

The police official, who is investigating the case, told Dawn that a proper FIR would be registered against the teacher upon the arrival of the medical report.

“We will consult our legal expert about under which section of the law we can register an FIR against the teacher in light of the medical report,” he said.

A senior official at the district education office revealed that the department would also take disciplinary action against the headmaster of the Tehkal Payan school for failing to check corporal punishment on campus and not informing it about the incident on time.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2024