Daily Times

LAHORE: It seems that the Punjab government has failed to implement the ban on corporal punishment at public sector schools as female students at the Government Higher Secondary School Samanabad are being asked to do sit-ups as punishment over minor issues, Daily Times has learnt.

Students of class 9 were also asked to shift furniture for examination hall of class 5.

Talking to Daily Times, a student of class 9, seeking anonymity, said that it was a routine matter at her school to punish students over petty issues.

“Besides punishing, teachers also charge fines from students who remain absent or do not perform well in class tests,” she said, adding that in a recent incident, students were forced to do sit-ups and shift furniture of classrooms.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Punjab government and School Education Department is following the ‘Maar Nahi Pyar’ policy for more than a decade in public sector schools discouraging teachers to punish students as this can decrease their learning abilities.

The policy was implemented by former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. Since then the policy is being implemented in Punjab schools and none of the teacher is allowed to punish any student.

Earlier, Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashood Ahmad had visited a school in Lahore where students were being forced to carry out cleanliness work.

Taking notice of the situation, the minister asked school management not to involve students in such kind of work, otherwise strict action could be taken against teachers, including headmasters. Meanwhile, a father of another student was of the view that they did not send their daughters to school for cleaning the school or shifting furniture, but to learn and study.

He said those teachers involving students in cleanliness work or punishing them should be punished. He observed that female students in Islamabad had been provided with luxury transport facilities but same was not the case with female students in the provincial capital of Punjab.