A six-year-old boy died at a private school in India’s Visakhapatnam after his family alleged that a teacher beat him for not completing his homework.
The child, namely Pranay Teja, was declared dead upon arrival at King George Hospital after he collapsed at the Little Garden School in One Town area.
According to the family, Pranay left home on Thursday morning in good health and had insisted on going to school. His father said that the family later received a call informing them that something had happened to the child.
“No one from the school called me,” the father said, adding that it was an acquaintance who called to inform the family.
He said they later went to the school and were shown CCTV footage that showed a teacher beating Pranay with a stick.
“When we checked the CCTV footage at the school, it showed that the teacher scared him. She hit him with a stick and due to shock and fear, he collapsed right there,” the father alleged.
The footage accessed by Indian media outlets confirmed that the teacher hit the child before he collapsed into her lap.
The father also said that Pranay had no known health problems before going to school and was playing normally the previous night.
The family has also alleged that physical punishment was not limited to Pranay and claimed that other students had been assaulted as well. They have called for action against those responsible if the allegations are established.
Meanwhile, Revenue Divisional Officer Dilip Chakravarthy visited the hospital after being informed about the incident.
“I came to know about this incident that a 6-year-old boy has been brought dead to KGH from the school,” he said, adding that officials were collecting details about the incident.
The Andhra Pradesh education department described the incident as “extremely unfortunate and painful” and said the government was taking it seriously.
“Immediately after the incident, the concerned education department officials conducted an inquiry and submitted a preliminary report,” the department said.
A three-member committee has been formed to examine the incident. It includes the Visakhapatnam regional joint director, district education officer and revenue divisional officer.
The education department also said sensitisation programmes would be organised to ensure teachers deal with students responsibly and with sensitivity. Officials have been directed to take steps to prevent similar incidents.
Police have registered a case and launched an investigation. The child’s body has been sent for a post-mortem examination to establish the cause of death.
