Latest update February 11th, 2025 4:18 AM
Jun 01, 2010 News
Springlands, Corriverton – Relatives of a five-year-old girl on the Upper Corentyne are calling on the police and relevant authorities to deal with a young teacher who they allege has been abusing their child for over six months.
The child’s aunt, who is also a teacher attached to Corriverton Primary, is convinced that her niece is being abused physically and verbally at school.
The aunt said that the alleged abuses began some time in November last year. In December, she made a report to the Department of Education. She said that she spoke to Nursery Education Officer Mrs Bibi Alli but, according to the aunt, the officer said that the child was lying and did not take the matter seriously.
She then made a report to Commander of ‘B’ Division, Stephen Merai, who ordered a police officer at the Springlands Police Station to visit the child’s school, Springlands Nursery, to warn the teacher [name given] in question.
However, the aunt is not sure if the teacher was warned by anyone about her behaviour towards the child.
The grandmother of the child claims that on Tuesday, May 18, the teacher slapped and beat her granddaughter. She visited the school the next day and asked the Head Teacher of the school to speak to the teacher, which she did.
The grandmother had hoped that everything would be all right. However, the alleged abuse continued. The grandmother claims that the teacher would usually instigate other children to hit her grandchild whenever the other children give her a complaint in the classroom, instead of dealing with the matter properly.
She also claims that the teacher told her granddaughter, “I hate this gyal. She should’ve been transferred long ago”.
According to the child’s relatives, the child was beaten for three consecutive days, and came home with brands on her upper arm and back. They also claim that last December, the teacher whipped the child with a bamboo for giving an incorrect answer to a question. The young teacher in question was also blamed for hurling insults to the child, who has been very scared to return to the teacher’s classroom.
When Kaieteur News spoke to five- year- old {name given}, who was all dressed for school, she told this reporter verbatim what the teacher allegedly told her on several occasions. “She say she hate me, and she put me on the [school’s] veranda and when I tried to go inside back, she pushed me out back.”
“She lash me with she hand”, the child said. During the interview, the child had an exercise book in her hand. She was making drawings with a pencil in the book as she related little details to this newspaper. She said that she is afraid to go back to school.
One of the child’s aunts, a teacher, had penned a letter to the Guyana Chronicle recently about the incidents. The letter was published in last Thursday’s edition and captioned “Springlands Nursery School teacher physically and verbally abusing children”.
According to the relatives, a number of parents have transferred their children from the school out of fear of the teacher’s behaviour.
“She beat a child with a pipe, and the child’s mother [name given] transferred the child,” the grandmother said.
The aunt claims that the teacher had openly boasted about relationships she has with the education officials and police, fuelling the fears in relatives’ minds about the continuity of the alleged abuse of their niece and grandchild.
They said that the matter had been reported several times to the Department of Education and police and no one is taking them seriously.
The Region Six Education Officer responsible for Nursery schools, Mrs Bibi Alli, who incidentally is currently performing the duties of Regional Education Officer, since Mrs Shafiran Bhajan is out of the country, gave a totally different side of the story.
Mrs Alli said that she received a complaint about the matter and a team, including her, visited the school last December. She said within 15 minutes of conducting their investigations at the Springlands Nursery School, the child’s relatives barged into the school and began verbally abusing the teachers. She said that they were also using indecent language in front of all the children.
Mrs Alli said that she was traumatised and after the incident her investigations came to an abrupt halt. She said that she immediately contacted the Springlands Police Station and got on to the Region Six Chairman, who then sent a police officer to the school.
She said that the incident left the children cowering together for a few minutes as it had traumatised them also. They (the relatives) left, and then the police arrived.
The acting Regional Education Officer also alleged that on May 25, she received a telephone call from the Head Teacher of the school reporting that the parent visited the school and was threatening to “abuse and beat” all of the teachers.
Again, the police were summoned. Mrs Alli said in her opinion, the parent and relatives may have personal issues with the teacher in question.
She further mentioned that although her department was not allowed by the parents to conduct an investigation, her analysis of the situation proves that there was never any case of child abuse. “Our investigations proved that there were no beatings. She [the child] doesn’t want to go along with the school rules,” Mrs Alli stated.
She also said that she was made to understand that the parents allegedly promised to put a “fine cut- tail” on all of the teachers there at the end of this term since their daughter would be leaving the nursery division to attend primary school come September.
Mrs Alli said that the School Welfare Officer’s report of the matter related that the child is a bully at the school and the teachers are scared to reprimand the her because the parents are supporting the child’s bad behaviour.
Kaieteur News then contacted the acting Head Mistress of the school, who denied all of the allegations of child abuse. The Head Teacher said that she never saw any branding on the child and that corporal punishment is not used in her school.
Meanwhile, the child has not attended school since the incidents took a different turn last week.
(Leon Suseran)
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