'Magic ink' invites wrath of RAK teachers, municipality

Students are not just using ink to write - they have also procured a "magic" ink to spray on one other, inviting the wrath of teachers and the municipality.

Students spray the blue ink on each other's kandoura. The stain stays for a few minutes and then vanishes. The price is affordable – ranging from Dh1 to Dh2.

What was earlier just the bane of teachers and parents has now become a headache for the municipality which has ordered shops to stop the sale immediately.

Mubarak Ali Al Shamsi, Director General of Ras Al Khaimah Municipality, said inspectors have been seizing tubes from shops. "Students have been misbehaving, and shops caught selling magic ink will be subject to heavy penalties. If the shops continue to sell the ink then it will be shut and will not be issued a licence again."

The municipality has written to various authorities, asking them to help put a stop to the practice which is spreading in schools.

Al Shamsi said the ink is sold in small shops which make a high profit. "Children have bought large quantities of the magic ink during the Eid Al Adha vacation to use when schools reopen."

Abdullah Hamad, Deputy Director of the Ras Al Khaimah Educational Zone, said these activities are banned in schools and it is the administration's responsibility to ensure that students do not throw ink on one another.

Schools should monitor children and those caught should be punished.

He added that it is also the responsibility of various authorities in the emirate to identify shops which sell the ink. "Playing with magic ink has also led to many fights. What starts as a joke turns sour," he warned.

The educational zone recently conducted a study which revealed that the magic ink does not have harmful effects.

"However, the practice must be stopped. Parents should find out from children where they procure the ink and then report the matter to the municipality," he maintained.

Dr Gul Karim Khan, a dermatologist at Saif bin Ghoubash Hospital, said the magic ink does has no bad effects on the skin, but the practice is "socially unacceptable behaviour".

"The ink, however, can damage the eyes if it come into contact with them. The tube carries a warning which says the ink must not comes into contact with the eyes. The ink is not water – it is made of chemical substances which should be kept away from children."