An extreme application of the controversial Corporal Punishment has come to public attention through a video showing the beating of two female students, from the Awarewanau primary school in Deep South Rupununi.
Last evening, GINA said that the Ministry of Education is conducting an investigation into the Incident.
New Minister of Education Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, was reported as saying that he “in collaboration with the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Social Protection are investigating the matter, and will take appropriate action.”
A full report on the incident will be made public once completed, according to the education minister.
The video which was recorded in February of this year and posted to the Alliance For Change (AFC) Facebook page on Monday shows the two teenage girls who are 15 and 13 years respectively being stripped of their school uniform, restrained by four adults including two teachers and beaten on their bare buttocks with a homemade cow skin belt.
The administration of Corporal Punishment, in Guyanese schools is governed by strict guidelines. The 2002 Ministerial Guidelines allow for “corporal punishment to be administered by the head teacher, deputy head teacher or designated senior teacher for certain offences including fighting and use of indecent language.” According to the guidelines, “boys should be punished on their hands or buttocks, girls on their hands; the punishments should be inflicted with a cane or strap no longer than 24 inches and not in the presence of other learners, and all punishments should be recorded in the Misdemeanours Book.” These guidelines were clearly not followed in the video.
According to Mohamed Khan who brought the situation to public attention “the students were hospitalized for weeks with pains and marks of violence”. In a letter to the press Khan says that the girls were beaten for skipping school.
He notes that the matter was reported to the school welfare officers and the police at Lethem. Subsequent to an investigation, the teachers were detained and charged with causing actual bodily harm, after the file including the medical certificates issued to the students, was taken to the director of public prosecutions (DPP). However for reasons unknown to the
community the matter was dismissed by the magistrate.
Khan contends that the villagers feel that the two teachers, one male and one female who were involved in the beating should be removed from the school since they make a habit of administering such beatings.
Stabroek News has been reliably informed that the teachers involved were suspended by ministry officials since February and an investigation launched into the situation is still ongoing.
