Friday, April 17, 2009

The torture teacher.

We often talk about teachers being strict on students; to inculcate discipline or to make students excel and shine. But there have been incidents where the limits have been crossed and the teachers have gone overboard. I call them torture teachers or terror teachers or terrorist teachers. They might not at all be the majority, but some baddies spoil the name of the entire teacher's clout.

One such incident has happened in Delhi in one of the Municipal Corporation schools when a child was punished severely. On not doing her homework, Shanno Khan's head was banged over a bench and then asked to stand in sun for hours on before she became unconscious. Then she was shifted to a nearby hospital and kept under life support. But nothing could save her, as she succumbed to the corporal punishment.

I would consider it as a failure in the system. The government should provide counseling to teachers and parents on sensitivities involved and care to be taken while handling a child. The accused torture teacher should be treated as criminals by our legal system. It is the collective failure and thus collective responsibility of all of us belonging to the civilized society to ensure that incidents of such gravity should not happen. Only then this world would become a better place to live in for us and for our future (generations).