16 students of government primary school in Khulna severely beaten

A brutal incident occurred in Dakop upazila in Khulna, where 16 students of Ramnagar Binapani Government Primary School were severely beaten and injured. Two of the injured were immediately admitted to the Upazila Health Complex. The rest were given primary treatment locally.

Parents said that all the injured were students of the fifth grade. Assistant teacher Tarun Kumar Mondal beat them up and injured them on charges of making noise during class. This incident has created extreme anger and tension among the parents.

According to the victims' family, last Thursday afternoon, when the fifth grade students made some noise or commotion during class, the assistant teacher Tarun Kumar Mondal, became angry. At one point, he beat 16 students of the class with a bamboo stick and injured them.

The school authorities organized a discussion meeting with the society members concerned and parents at the school on Saturday afternoon to resolve the incident locally. The meeting was presided over by the former headmaster of the school, Sukumar Gain.

During the meeting, the parents present strongly demanded that the accused teacher Tarun Mondal be transferred from the school immediately. But when the school authorities informed about the administrative process and said that ‘transfer is not possible now’, the parents expressed their strong dissatisfaction and left the meeting venue together.

The accused assistant teacher Tarun Mondal admitted the offence and said, ‘This incident happened by mistake. I don’t know what suddenly happened to me at that time. Such a mistake has never happened before in my teaching career. I regret this incident and have apologized to every parent with folded hands.’

In this regard, the school’s headmaster Kanak Kanti Roy said, ‘We are also very saddened by this barbaric incident. On the day of the incident, I was on official work in the upazila headquarters. I was not present at the school. To calm the situation and resolve the issue locally, a meeting was held with the guardians and the concerned society. The guardians have demanded the transfer of the teacher. But since there is a specific legal process for transferring government employees, it is not possible for us to do so immediately. We have already informed the entire matter to the Upazila Education Officer.'

In this regard, Upazila Primary Education Officer Roksana Akhter said, 'I have asked the Assistant Primary Education Officer to investigate this incident. Action will be taken against the accused teacher after receiving the investigation report and a show cause notice will be served to him.'