More checks on schools needed

Also guilty is the management of the school, which did not extend a helping hand to rectify and put right any deviant behaviour, root out the menace or keep a serious eye on the students through the supervisors and the social workers. The school management is to blame and to be held accountable in a large measure for what happened.

In fact, the school’s management needs continuous inspection, advice and interrogation. Not only are the teachers to blame for the shortcoming and neglect, but the managements also need to be advised and admonished, because if it had been stricter and more vigilant, many unsavoury episodes like this could have been avoided.

Another unpleasant and shocking incident was that of a girl student of a private school, who fell on the ground after suffering from sunstroke, as the school administration had ordered her to stand in the sun in the school compound, to punish her for her parent’s non-payment of the last fee instalment.

How can the school management justify this shocking treatment of the girl? How much trauma that poor girl must have undergone when she was punished in front of everyone, her classmates and teachers. How she must have suffered from the sunstroke, which could have claimed her life?

With the Minister of Education Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan ordering an investigation immediately into the incident and the school management’s role in it, he has underscored the fact that he will not hesitate to secure justice for students who are being maltreated. For our part, we stress the need to conduct more inspections on school managements, with the ministry being free to decide how to go about it.