Note: This video has been intentionally blurred by Gulf News to protect the identities of the minors that feature within it.
Dubai: An Ajman public school teacher was suspended on Wednesday, pending the outcome of a Ministry of Education investigation into an online video of a teacher slapping a sixth grader in his classroom.
The video went viral on Wednesday after internet users watched a teacher slap a student twice in a span of eight seconds at Islamic Scientific Institute, a public school in Ajman.
The video, which appears to be taken by another student sitting nearby in the class, showed a teacher using an open right hand to slap the student on the back of his head and then slapping him again with his left hand on his right cheek.]
Ajman Police told Gulf News on Wednesday that the father of the student in the video declined to lodge a criminal case against the teacher.
After looking into the incident, Ajman Education Zone said the student suffers from kidney problems and has to visit the toilet often.
Education officials said the student was allowed to go to the toilet after his first two requests earlier but when he asked to go for the third time, the teacher beat and slapped him.
The video became the most trending topic in the UAE with the hashtag “teacher_hitting_student” (in Arabic) with 3,906 tweets (as of press time).
The tweets mostly criticised the teacher’s actions with some users asking officials to take action against the teacher in the video.
The Emirates Human Rights Association (EHRA) on Wednesday released a statement calling on the Minister of Education to launch an investigation into the incident of a child slapped by his teacher.
“As documented by the video, the incident is a clear violation of children’s rights, and this type of aggressive and violent behaviour should not be allowed to occur. Those responsible for the incident should be held accountable for their actions,” the statement announced.
The EHRA added that as per the UAE Constitution, the rights and freedom of children should be protected and any form of excessive violence is a violation of children’s rights.
Commenting on the incident, Minister of Education Hussain Al Hammadi said the ministry rejects all forms of outdated methods of corporal punishment that are contrary to the traditions and customs of the society of the UAE.
Al Hammadi said the ministry suspended the teacher and has formed a committee to investigate the incident.
Al Hammadi said the actions that are shown in the video do not represent the educational environment in Dubai schools. It is a one-off case, and the ministry regrets that it happened and stressed that it shouldn’t occur again.
He added that there are more modern methods of disciplining kids apart from corporal punishment, stressing that it is important to rectify students’ mistakes in a wise and rational way.
The minister said students should learn how to use social media correctly and refrain from publishing such a video.
They should go to the proper authorities at school or the ministry itself, which is the correct way to deal with the situation while protecting everyone‘s rights, he asserted.
