In yet another incident of corporal punishment in Andhra Pradesh, a student broke his hand and suffered a fracture, after he was allegedly thrashed by an official of Narayana Junior College in Kadapa district.
The Deccan Chronicle reported that the incident happened at the CK Dinne campus, on Friday, and came to light on Sunday after the hospital authorities alerted the student’s parents.
Quoting sources, the DC report adds that the student was beaten up violently by a senior official of the college, over some differences that had cropped up between juniors and seniors.
The official is also reported to have thrashed a few more students, following which a complaint was lodged with the CK Dinne village police.
This latest incident follows a long list of children being thrashed by their teachers in the Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra.
Just last week, a Class 2 student was allegedly thrashed mercilessly by his school principal for failing to read the words written on the board in Hyderabad.
Three students from the Narayana group of institutions itself, have killed themselves over the last one month.
Earlier this month, Hyderabad-based activist Achyuta Rao moved the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) to take note of the rising number of student suicides in Telangana.
Speaking to TNM at the time, Achyuta had said, “The main reason for the suicides is pressure. The colleges control every second of the student’s hostel life. These junior colleges lack professional teachers and employ unprofessional junior lecturers and floor monitors who have barely passed intermediate themselves. Over and above that, the children are not even treated like human beings. None of their concerns are addressed, and they are just herded into class every single day, like animals."
“According to the AP Educational Act 1982, educational institutions have to function as a not-for-profit society. However, these junior colleges purely focus on the money, and function as a profit-making business,” a student leader had earlier told TNM.