The Ministry of Education will be investigating allegations made by a mother of a Year Four pupil in Nadi who claimed that her daughter was allegedly forced to sit on the classroom floor for three days.

Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Education Iowane Tiko said they were not aware of the issue but they would now investigate the matter.

The alleged incident happened in a primary school in Nadi last week.

“On September 16 during lunch time the Year Four student was dancing in the classroom when her chair broke,” the mother of the pupil said.

“On Monday when she came to school, she was told by her class teacher to sit on the floor.

“While other students sat on their chairs doing their school work, my daughter would sit on the floor, did her class activities and ate her food on the dirty floor.

“My daughter used to bring a cloth from home to school and sat on that piece of cloth in her class.”

She said her daughter informed her about the alleged incident after school on Wednesday.

The concerned mother lodged a complaint with the head teacher soon after.

“I also told the head teacher that I will report the matter to the Ministry of Education but they begged me not to do so,” she said.

The girl’s mother said: “Similar incident happened to my daughter in Term One where she was given a broken chair to sit on and when she would fall from her chair, the whole class would laugh at her.”

“This should not be happening in any school.

“If the teachers had any issues with my daughter, they should have called me and I would have spoken to my daughter,” she said.

She said she even told the head teacher if the school could not provide a chair for her daughter to sit on, she would not send her daughter to school.

“The head teacher then told me to send my daughter to school and she was given a chair the very next day,” she said.

Edited by Rusiate Mataika

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