Delhi govt school teachers demand security after students kill colleague

The death of a teacher who was stabbed by two 12th standard students after he had complained to their parents about their indiscipline, has triggered panic among government school teachers and a demand for higher security.

The death of a teacher who was stabbed by two 12th standard students after he had complained to their parents about their indiscipline, has triggered panic among government school teachers and a demand for higher security.

Over the last few years, there have been incidents where teachers had to be hospitalised after being assaulted by students in Delhi. (Representative photo)

Mukesh Kumar, a Hindi teacher of a Delhi government school died Monday night in a hospital after being stabbed inside a room in the school.

On several occasions, teachers in government schools had raised the issue of deteriorating discipline among students as a major cause of concern. Now, Mukesh Kumar’s murder could be the last straw.

“Last week during the assembly one of the student beat up a physical education teacher in front of everyone. We had to call the police and hand over the student,” said a teacher of government school.in Delhi’s Bawana area.

More worryingly, he added that such incidents of student misbehaving with teachers and bringing objects such as knives to school have become regular feature.

Teachers of the government boys senior secondary school, Sultanpuri Road at Nangloi where Kumar was a teacher, say the students had been threatening them.

Over the last few years, there have been incidents where teachers had to be hospitalised after being assaulted by students.

In March 2015, a principal at Tughlaqabad was attacked by a student and was left bleeding from his ears. The student had also vandalised the school property.

In 2014, a teacher in Madanpur Khadar had to be admitted to an ICU after allegedly being beaten by parents and students.

In 2011, an 8th standard student in Rohini pulled a 58-year-old teacher by her hair, kicked her and slashed her chin with a sharp object after she asked him to submit his notes during an exam and stop talking loudly. Other teachers had to intervene to rescue her.

Teachers now say they prefer to ignore the indiscipline among students as they cannot risk their lives.

“Parents also come and charge us sometimes. They blame the teacher for everything even if he just asks the students to dress well and come to school. So it is better to keep quiet then face disrespect,” said a teacher of the government boys senior secondary school in Sonia Vihar.

A teacher who has taught in four different schools in the last 21 years said, “These days children have no fear and respect. Once I had scolded a student, the very next moment he walked to me took out his mobile phone and said whether he should file a complaint that he was beaten. I was left aghast.”

He says that 10 years back students would listen to what teachers had to say.

“Earlier even if we beat them up for running away from schools or not doing homework, there wasn’t a fear anything would happen to us. Now we never know what children might just do,” he said.

Now, in the wake of Kumar’s murder, teachers are demanding more security personnel to be deployed in schools.

The government school teachers association (GSTA) has written to Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia demanding tight security.

“Security guards of higher standards be employed in schools and beat officers from the police should also be placed outside schools,” GSTA said in a letter to Sisodia.

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