Ridding madrasahs of corporal punishment

The report that a madrasa boy in Feni was punished by chaining has made many of us think about the teaching methods in these institutions. Ten-year-old Zahidul Hasan was a Nazera student who would reportedly run away from the institution quite often. This prompted the principal of the madrasa to keep him in chains, locked and sometimes beaten, according to the media. The boy in chains still managed to escape the institution and was spotted by some local policemen and rescued. But not all madrasa students are so lucky like Zahidul. As far we know corporal punishment is a common affair in our madrasas. And there is hardly any madrasa which is free from this practice.
Physical punishment on students causes different types of emotional outbursts like hatred, anger, fear, anxiety and depression in the long run. Excessive torture can lead them to drug addiction. The torture sometimes turns so unbearable that children choose to commit suicide for relief. Time has come for us to focus on our madrasas and see what is going on there. We should change our perspectives to stop corporal punishments in schools and madrasas. For this, the authorities concerned should train madrasa teachers side by side with school teachers. If we cannot engage them in activity-based training, the culture of corporal punishment will not go from our educational institutions.

Fariha Tabassum Piya,
Student of Department of Management,
University of Dhaka, Dhaka,
f.tabassum36@gmail.com