A student in a secondary school in the city of Kirkuk was beaten by his teacher using a stick of mop because of "laughter" in the classroom, although schools have opened doors recently and the students have not yet received curriculums and the lesson in which the attack occurred was vacant.
On November 11th, a committee from the General Directorate of Education in Kirkuk visited Al-Hikma Preparatory School Kirkuk to investigating a video showing a teacher appears to hit a student using a ground cleaner inside the classroom and in front of the eyes of his classmates.
A member of the Education Directorate committee, who asked not to be named, under the pretext that the final report has not yet been prepared, told KirkukNow, "We took the statements of the school director, the student, and we also spoke with the student's father and a number of his colleagues."
The committee member said, "The video is true and the incident took place in the same school (Al-Hikma)... Since today is Thursday and tomorrow is a holiday, we will postpone the disclosure of the results of the committee's investigations until next week," without disclosing any further details.
KirkukNow spoke with a section of the student’s classmates, who confirmed that “in the lesson the student was hit, it was vacant and there was no teacher in the class... The students, including the student who was beaten, were laughing when the teacher who was already angry walked in and hit the student with mop several times."
The students, including the one who was beaten, were laughing when the teacher who was already angry walked in and hit the student with the mop several times
The student who was beaten is in class 11, and the teacher is English language teacher.
On Wednesday, November 10th, a video clip was widely circulated on social media platforms, showing a teacher hitting a student with a mop in front of his classmates and verbally insulting him.
Footage of the a teacher beating a pupil with a mop stick for laughing in a Kiruku school.
The General Directorate of Kirkuk Education stressed in a statement on Wednesday, the incident occurred in a Kirkuk school and decided to form a three-member committee to investigate the circumstances of the incident and take the necessary measures.
"The marks of the mop on the student's body disappeared in few minutes," one of the student's classmates said. "On that day, the teacher was very angry."
That beating of the student comes at a time when the students have not received textbooks yet despite the fact that the schools opened doors for class education for 2021-2022 new academic year on November 1st.
The incident took place week after another incident where the Director-General of Kirkuk Education, Abid Ali Hussein Touma treated a group of journalists inappropriately while they were covering the ceremonies of the start of the new school year in a primary school.
The Director of Education used inappropriate words towards the journalists, in full view of the students, before ordering his bodyguards, who were present during the ceremony, carrying weapons, to dismiss the journalists from that school.
Following the wide circulation of the video which intrigued wide protests, education director apologized to the journalists, after being summoned by the acting governor of Kirkuk Rakan Saeed Al-Jibouri, and took administrative measures against him.
