December 03, 2023

Disturbing Assault Attempt On Teacher In Assam

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-11-30 06:16:22

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Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

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In a disturbing and disgusting incident at the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Assam's Dibrugarh district, a mob of 45-45 students tried to attack a pregnant Class X teacher. Her fault - she had informed the mother of one of the students during the parent-teacher meeting that her son was not paying attention in class and consequently his grades were suffering. The student incited his friends and they ganged up against the teacher. She fainted on seeing the angry mob of students before they could attack her and had to be hospitalized. She said that she was saved by two of her colleagues before the students could harm her.

The school conducted an internal inquiry and has suspended 22 students for six months for taking active part in inciting other students and then confronting the teacher with the intention of harming her. The local administration has also taken a stern view of the incident and district magistrate Biswajit Peguhas has also ordered a separate inquiry into the incident at the residential school.

Parent-teacher meetings are conducted for the reason of informing the parents about the progress of their wards. Teachers would be amiss in their duty if they do not inform parents about the reason of their wards' poor performance. It is extremely dangerous when students gang up against a teacher for performing her duty and for being truthful (which in any case the parents would know on seeing the grades). While it would be wrong to make the errant students lose a year for their wrongful act, they should be suitably punished so that others are deterred from adopting the same means in future. Also, residential schools must have regular counselling sessions for senior students and ensure that they learn anger management and do not turn violent.