Time for Sheikh Hasina to get serious

I'm incensed. The most evil and most ugly side of schooling in Bangladesh has raised its grotesque head of shame again. English-language newspapers have reported that assistant headmaster of Khaled Haider Memorial High School, Selim Majumdar, went on a beating spree physically injuring 37 students (21.11.11), but only Almighty Allah knows what psychological damage was caused to them. Rampura police arrested him, which at least is a positive police action. We owe a lot to the persistent, on-going efforts of Sir Frank Peters who incessantly hammers home the worthlessness and ill-effects of corporal punishment. As a result, every man, woman, child and dog in Bangladesh know there is a law prohibiting corporal punishment in schools. And as assistant headmaster of his school, he, no doubt, would have been one of the key people who would have handled the official government notice that said so. This is another shocking and disgusting example of teachers misbehaving atrociously and setting the worst kind of example to the pupils in their charge. We read of a similar horrific case earlier this year involving an assistant teacher at Lebutali Bajitpur Government Primary School in Madaripur Sadar upazila who caned no less than 64 children, causing 10 to be treated at hospital and many more injured. She had been sleeping in the classroom during her class when noise from the pupils awoke her. She retaliated by beating them mercilessly for disturbing her sleep! Humayun Kabir, a teacher of Shitlai Primary School at Boro Shitlai village in Birganj beat up 13 class III pupils mercilessly just for refusing to work in his garden! Eleven of them had to spend the night at a first aid health complex for treatment and observation. Headmaster Md. Zillur Rahman, at first took no action, but Birganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer Md. Zahidul Islam made him. Humayun was suspended for a month. That is the equivalent of being rewarded a holiday for his deplorable wrongdoing. There are many more similar stories, but how many more thousands of incidents go unreported? When is this government going to take corporal punishment seriously and really punish the culprits involved? When Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is on national and international platforms in the glare of the spotlights, she talks vociferously about the rights of children, how they are the future of the nation, and suggests she's a loving mother to all of them. Well, it's time she started taking her responsibilities seriously as a mother and protector and rid the school system of this repulsive behaviour. Prof. Faruq Aziz Chittagong. Email: professor.faruqaziz@alumni.com Errand brings crore taka! Ray's unbelievable article, published in your 'Opinion Column' on November 21st is simply extraordinary. Is it based on facts, or just fiction? The story about Sunmon Howaladar, becoming a Crore-pati, possibly before reaching 30 years of age is simply unbelievable. If he started when he was say below 10, then he gathered Tk 10 million in twenty years-- his average yearly saving comes to taka five hundred thousand. Assuming that he ran say five errands daily; then Sunon averaged 5X300 = 1500 errands yearly; then his average tips per errand works out at around Tk 335-- surprisingly good tips for running an errand! If this was his income for running errands for custom officials; one may not be wrong that the average yield for the custom official per year for 300 errands must have been around Tk 10 million. Given all these juicy facts; is to become an errand boy; but only for a custom official; therein lies the catch 22 situation. Otherwise it seems to be an easy way to earn over Tk .25 million per anum; tax free! Not a bad profession to go for! S A Mansoor Dhaka.