Phulbani: It’s been three days but no steps have been taken against a cook cum attendant (CCA) after she meted out corporal punishment to a male student because ‘he was playing’ in the school.
The accused has been identified as Sujata Nayak, serving as cook cum attendant (CCA) at Chhatijhar upper primary school under Tikabali block.
As per the parents’ complaint, the CCA started beating him up with a stick while exclaiming ‘why are you playing?’ repeatedly. The left hand of the student was injured and he was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital as the sore increased but there was no fracture as per the X-ray report.
When asked, Principal of the school, Suprava Patra, first denied about the incident while stating that the boy might have ‘fallen down’ but later admitted the fault.
Meanwhile, the family members have taken the matter up with the district education officer (DEO) Bikash Pradhan seeking action against the teacher.
The DEO assured that if the incident actually took place then he would take the matter up with the block education officer (BEO).
Corporal punishment in schools, colleges and alternate care institutes like hostels, orphanages and foster homes, has been a subject of debate over the last few years. While most education institutions discourage corporal punishment, we still hear about incidents of innocent children being subjected to harsh punishment. Most of the time, the person, or authority accused of corporal punishment tries to justify their action on the ground that such punishment was meted out for the child’s benefit.
PNN