Year 1 student in trouble over a chair

A parent is seeking answers from a primary school why her Year One son was made to stand the entire day in class.

Answers are also been sought why his class teacher demanded the six-year-old student pay $5 for a broken chair.

The incident happened in a primary school in Suva, where the teacher was also alleged to have encouraged other students to hit the child.

Ministry of Education Permanent Secretary Iowane Tiko said they were not aware of the incident but they would now investigate the matter. A team is expected to visit the school today to investigate.

The boy’s mother said: “On Wednesday afternoon, my son returned home from school and he told me both his legs were aching.

“My son told me that he was standing the whole day in class because he did not have a chair to sit on. He wrote on his exercise book, do class activities and ate his lunch standing.”

She said her son’s ears were also aching.

“I asked him, what happened, he replied that he was playing during class time and the teacher told a group of students to bring him to the teacher.

“When the group of students were taking my son to their teacher, they pulled his ears and there were also scratch marks on my son’s face,” she alleged.

She also alleged that the teacher had a number of students who were the favourites and were allowed to hit other students for being disobedient.

“Last week on Monday, the class teacher apologised to a parent who also complained regarding a similar incident to the school’s head teacher.

“Also, my son has been complaining that his class teacher eats his (student’s)  food. Not only have my son’s lunch but other students’ food as well,” she said.

She said for the past one week her son had been informing her that his class teacher wanted money because her son had broken a chair.

“I told my son to tell his teacher to write a letter to me then we will give the money but when on (Wednesday) my son asked the teacher to write a letter, teacher replied she does not have the time to write the letter.

“My son was told by his class teacher to go to the head teacher to get the letter,” she said.

She then went to complain about her son’s class teacher to the head teacher.

“The head teacher informed me that we do not demand money from the students,” she said.

She said the head teacher called her son’s class teacher and the teacher said she was sorry for everything.

Edited by Paula Tuvuki

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