DAWN : Report
Spanking forces students to flee school
MUZAFFARGARH, March 10: Seven students who reportedly went missing three days ago had actually fled to escape corporal punishment at their school. The escape story surfaced on Saturday after Golra Sharif (Rawalpindi) police found them in the morning.
The students, aged eight to 15, left their houses in Jhang on March 7 for their boarding school in Muzaffargarh but did not reach there. Farrukh Abbas, Musarrat Abbas, Sarfraz Hussain, Tasawar Abbas, Inzamamul Haq, Ghulam Jilani, Ghulam Rabbani, and Ghulam Rasool belong to Mauza Bhawana, Jhang district.
Fazal Abbas, the father of Farrukh and Musarrat, said the Shakir Academy (Muzaffargarh) staff informed him that his children had not reached the school as per schedule. He said that he immediately reached Multan and searched the driver of the wagon who told him that children had got off the wagon at Bahawalpur Chowk.
He said that they received a call from the Golra police check post on Saturday that they had found the children. He said constable Khushahal Jappa, who was also from his village, saw the children and took them in his custody. When he talked to his children, they told him that they had run away to save themselves from cruel treatment of teachers at the academy.
Fazal said that even though his children had been complained about corporal punishment at the school, he had overlooked it. He said he would move the court against the academy owner.
A teacher of the academy said they were not responsible for the disappearance of the children as they had gone missing from Multan and not from the campus.
Dawn learnt that three weeks ago 16-year-old Ramiz from Duniyapur was beaten so cruelly at an academy in Muzaffargarh that he fell unconscious. The academy did not provide him any medical treatment. When his mother came to know about the treatment, she got her son out of the academy.
Talking to Dawn, she said that her child was still in shock. She said the academy owner had tendered an apology when she had threatened legal action. She said she did nor file the case since her husband was ill and she alone could not visit courts. Ramiz said that his only fault was that his teacher had caught him talking with one of his class fellows during studies.
In the last decade, about half a dozen boarding schools have emerged on Alipur-Muzaffargarh Road where parents from other districts also send their children for getting “good results”. These schools also offer studies for preparation for admission tests of cadet colleges, matriculation and FSc exams.
Visits to these campuses reveal that hundreds of the students are penned like animals in their classrooms that also become their sleeping rooms at nights.
Students said that their day started at 5:30am and their first period started at at 6.30 am. Period after period till dusk, they are made to study each subject mainly through rote learning. During the whole day, a break of 30 minutes and a lunch break of one hour are given to the students.
One student said that early in the morning they had to make lines to get their turns for bath as there were a few washrooms. He said that often they did not get their turn. These academies do not allow students to enjoy weekly days-off and summer or winter vacations. Only three vacations are allowed onec a month and in the summer they get just one month vacations.
Students said they were imposed heavy fines on flimsy excuses. Some academies charged Rs1,500 for FSC and Rs1,000 for matriculation exam admission fees.
Even though many of the students of these academies get good marks in FSc exams, they failed in entrance tests of medical and engineering institutes.
These academies have become a source of income for those living around the academies. People often catch students fleeing the academies and get them to the management which awards them Rs500 per catch.
Talking to Dawn, Executive District Office (Education) Mehr Aslam Bhageela said that owners of such campuses had become a powerful mafia and he was helpless to take any action against them. He said in fact he had no power to stop these academies from exploiting the students. He said that he knew that academies were involved in corporal punishment.
Muhammad Jameel, speaking on behalf of the academies, said that they had established the boarding schools with good intention to provide education to the students. About physical punishment, he said it was difficult to stop the practice as teachers were untrained but personally he was in favour of treating the children gently.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/03/11/nat12.htm 
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