An incident at Civilizations Public School, a private school in Karachi, went viral a few days ago when a distressed father uploaded a video where he narrated a harrowing account of what his son went through.
The father revealed that his son’s teacher, Sadaf Mateen, had overheard the student speaking in urdu to his friends. She called him over and began to humiliate him by making a black mark on his face, and then encouraged other students to laugh at him.
The father went on to reveal that he had sought the school’s administrations help but they had refused to cooperate, so he was compelled to make a video and make it public.
Video taken courtesy of Geo news
After the video went viral, the Directoriate of Inspection/ Registration of Private Institutions Sindh had announced that they were launching an investigation into the matter which reportedly took place on January 27. An inquiry committee comprising of five members has now said in a statement released on their public pages that the accusations were proven to be true.
“The accusation of applying blackness on the face of student Moosa by his teacher is correct. Indeed, the teacher in question punished the student for not speaking in English, which is quite in contradiction of the feeling of patriotism and love for the national language. The administration of the school failed to handle the situation or deal with the parents on their complaint properly.”
Therefore, the school was charged a fine of Rs 100,000 and their registration was also suspended.
In a statement uploaded on their Facebook page, a representative from Civilizations Public School revealed that they had accepted the resignation of the school teacher and said that the incident was against the school’s ethos.
“Civilizations Public School takes great pride in being one the few educational institutions to promote, encourage and celebrate Urdu. Its role in promoting Urdu is unmatched in the country. In the last few years, the school has organized four mushairas and poets such as Iftikhar Arif, Fehmida Riaz and Amjad Islam Amjad have read their poetry to audiences in thousands which included out students, faculty, staff, guests and members of the media. The coverage of these events is publicly available. Books by Urdu masters such as Yousufi, Patras Bukhari and Ibn-e-Insha comprise the entirety of our Urdu curriculum. Lines from Faiz, N. M. Rashid and Majaaz often echo through the corridors and auditoria.
The School in no way promotes English over Urdu. The regrettable incident that took place on January 27 is against the school’s ethos, ideology, philosophy and spirit. We are a considerate and empathetic institution that does not condone or allow anyone to embarrass a student. You are welcome to come to our next Urdu event and witness the school’s culture.
The teacher who took the said step is no longer part of the school and her resignation has been accepted.
The faculty and staff are fully trained and socialized to embrace diversity and a multilingual environment.
We hope to continue to produce the next generation of leadership and further our mission of celebrating our Urdu heritage.”
