Minister's word awaited on sacked teacher

Education bodies are awaiting the final decision of the Minister of Education and Youth in the sacking of a teacher and demoting of a secretary at Omar bin Al Khattab Secondary School for beating a teenage pupil.

The ministry's Under-secretary, who has been involved in the case from the start has, in a letter to the office of the minister, Dr Ali Abdul Aziz Al Sharhan, recommended that the ministry's decision against both be reversed. The letter suggested that the ministry be satisfied with a penalty recommended by the ministry's legal committee formed to review the case.

Ahmed Al Tabour, the school's Principal, termed the ministry's decision harsh. But he said they would wait until the end of the week for the minister's final ruling. If it did not come by then, the emirate's teachers and principals would go ahead and file a case against the ministry and seek to have the decision overturned legally. Al Tabour stressed that their lawyer had already prepared a list of mistakes with regard to the ministry's decision that will be submitted to court.

The 13-year-old student at the heart of the issue, was allegedly beaten by a teacher and the secretary after the pupil allegedly failed to attend school assembly, and then, when checked, shouted at both the staff members. The pupil's father later filed a complaint both with the police and the educational zone.