KUALA LUMPUR : A parent of a seven-year-old pupil in SRK Sri Delima in Jalan Ipoh has lodged a report against a teacher who beat her daughter for not lining up in the correct row after recess.
L Savatharaja, a journalist from Tamil daily, Malaysian Nanban, said his daughter Shanya had come home last Wednesday crying after a teacher known as Virda, hit her on the head, pinched her ears and slapped her hands.
“The incident frightened my daughter. Now she is too scared to go to school and is crying everyday,” he said, adding that he decided to lodge a police report against the teacher and the school authorties after failing to get a proper explanation from the school.
Recalling his visit to the school to inquire about what happened, Sarvantharaja said: “On Friday, I went to school to find out what had happened. But when I approached the teacher, I was shocked by her action.
“She told me off with ‘kalau encik tidak suka anak belajar disini, tukar sahajalah! Encik hendak pergi polis atau media, tiada masalah. Lebih baik tukar sahaja ke sekolah lain!’ (If you don’t like your child studying here then change lah! You can go to the police or the media, no problem. Better you change school.”)
“It was a irresponsible response to my question which was why she hit my daughter.
“I was angry and tried to take her photograph. But she covered her face and ran a few steps before stopping to turn back and say ‘janganlah ambil gambar saya belum solek lagi! bawa cermin dulu.(do not take my picture yet. I have no make-up. Bring me a mirror first!)
“I then went to see the afternoon session supervisor Rohizan Ibrahim. She promised to look into the matter. But there has been no reply from the school,” he said.
He pointed out that teachers handling Standard One pupils should be more understanding of the situation as the children were barely out of kindergarden.
“This is not a racial issue… it is not about a Malay teacher hitting an Indian student. This is about a teacher’s lack of patience and understanding of the situation. How can you beat a child who is just two weeks into her first school year? What kind of training are these teachers getting?” he asked.
As for his daughter, Sarvantharaj said the family had decided to find her another school with hopefully better teachers.
