Abu Dhabi // A physical education teacher at a private school who cut a pupil's hair and then is alleged to have hit him has been fired, Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) has confirmed. The parent of the Indian school student filed a complaint with Adec in September when the PE teacher cut off his son's hair and reportedly banged his head against a wall.
The teacher, who had been with the school for the past 20 years, was immediately suspended. The education authority investigated the matter and said yesterday that the school has terminated the teacher on its order. "Adec will not tolerate maltreatment of students, which includes both physical and verbal abuse, in any way," it said in a statement. The school principal, who asked not to be named, said the matter was resolved and the boy had returned to class.
"We immediately asked the teacher to leave," the principal said. "This is the first time we have had such an incident at the school and we will ensure this never happens again." He described the incident as an irrational decision by the teacher who was trying to discipline the student by cutting his long hair. "We had never received complaints against the teacher before," he said. "He should have approached the management instead of reacting in such a manner."
The teacher admitted to cutting the student's hair but denied hitting the child, the principal added. Adec said any such allegations of violence against students would be investigated in a fair and independent manner. aahmed@thenational.ae