Teacher suspended for video of child's Kannada mistake

The Primary and Secondary Education department on Saturday ordered the suspension of a school teacher who had shot the video of a child's inability to pronounce a particular word that went viral on the social media platforms in the last few days. Taking a serious note of the incident and disturbing mindset of the teacher, Education minister Suresh Kumar had directed the officials to suspend the teacher.

According to the direction by the minister and complaint filed by the people of Kuruvatti village in Hoovinahadagali taluk of Ballari district, the department ordered the suspension of the teacher ‘with immediate effect’.

The suspension order, a copy of which is with DH, read, "The teacher - T Chandrashekarappa had videographed a child who had difficulties in pronunciation and the same had gone viral on social media platforms. The physical and mental harassment as shown in the video was found to be true during the investigation. Even though there is an order prohibiting teachers from using mobile phones inside classrooms, the teacher has violated the rule. Besides, the harassment to the child as stated in Rule 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act has also been proven during the inquiry."

It can be recalled that the teacher while teaching the Kannada language to the children of the second Standard, came across a child who had difficulties in pronouncing words. When the child repeatedly failed to pronounce the word — Pakkelubu (Ribs) — the same was recorded by the teacher and uploaded onto the social media.