Guyana Chronicle
June 8, 2001

PERMANENT Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mr. Hydar Ally yesterday said the ministry was conducting a departmental investigation into the alleged beating of a city Primary school student by a teacher which left the girl with an injured collar bone.

The nine-year-old pupil was reportedly injured as a teacher was inflicting corporal punishment on her.

Ms. Wendy Garraway, mother of the injured Nickesha Garraway, of Mandela Avenue, Tucville, yesterday said she was not satisfied with the attitude of the teacher and vowed that she will be carrying through with Police action in the matter.

The incident was not reported to the Education Ministry and the teacher has reportedly not returned to school since.

Relatives of the child said that after the injury was discovered and they took Nickesha to a hospital where she was treated, they contacted the ministry and were alarmed to learn that the ministry had not yet been informed.

The child's grandmother, Mrs. Muriel Allen said that when confronted the female teacher denied beating the girl and only admitted under pressure from other children in the classroom who had witnessed the incident.

Nickesha, a pupil of Enterprise Primary School, Durban Backlands, was injured when a teacher who was overlooking her class (Primary II A) on the morning of Wednesday May 30, in the absence of the regular class teacher, allegedly beat her with a piece of bamboo, resulting in her left collar bone being dislocated.

Ally said the incident was most unfortunate, adding that from reports the teacher did in fact inflict lashes on the child in the region of her back which may have caused injury to the collar bone.

He noted that the Education Ministry has a policy which specifies that corporal punishment should not be instituted unless under a supervised and controlled situation.