Two teachers who in February of this year were involved in the brutal flogging of two teenage girls at Awarewanau Primary School in Deep South Rupununi have been dismissed from the teaching service.
Stabroek News had learned that after an investigation and hearing by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) the two teachers were dismissed on two charges.
The first charge notes that the teachers displayed “lack of discipline on the part of a teacher in their failure to observe Chapter 39:01 of the teaching service rules which governs the administration of corporal punishment,” while the second charge notes that the teachers were “involved in possible criminal matter: physical assault and abuse.”
The TSC’s decisions were communicated to the teachers in July and they were dismissed with immediate effect.
In February of this year a video posted to the Alliance For Change (AFC) Facebook page showed the two teenage girls who were 15 and 13 years respectively being stripped of their school uniforms, restrained by four adults, including the two teachers, and beaten on their bare buttocks with a homemade cow-skin belt.
The video sparked outrage with several non-governmental organizations calling for an investigation into the incident.
The organizations which included Help & Shelter, Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association, Red Thread, ChildLink and the Guyana Women Lawyers Association also expressed their outrage at the reports that charges against the two teachers involved in the incident were dismissed. They asked for an explanation for this action.
In June, 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” was investigating the matter, and will take appropriate action.
At the time the minister said that a full report on the incident would be made public once the investigation was completed. This is still to be done.
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.
