Teacher orders pupils to whip nine-year old

Though shock of the tragic killing of a student at the Public Administration Institute (STPDN) still remains, students are still being beaten in Indonesian schools.

In the latest violence, a teacher from Remban State Elementary School in South Sumatra allegedly ordered classmates of a nine- year-old boy to take turns beating the child with a whip over the weekend.

The teacher, identified as Sa, 27, reportedly ordered the attack because he considered the child, Alan Anarki, to be performing poorly in mathematics.

Though Alan suffered serious injuries and was vomiting from the pain, the boy's father, Ahsan, said Monday that he had been forced to remove his son from the local community health center immediately after the incident because he could not pay the medical expenses.

It is not the first time Sa has been accused of beating children.

School principal Asman said Sa, who had been teaching at the school for the last five years, had been involved in two previous attacks on his students.

"But we didn't have enough courage at the time to take action against him, on the grounds that he is a relative of a powerful family in the subdistrict."

Asman said Sa had been suspended indefinitely, pending the results of an investigation by the Musri Rawas regency education office.

Ahsan said he was seeking financial aid from the local administration for his son's care.

Local education office head Syafaruddin confirmed it would investigate the beating to ensure the case, which had comparisons to the STPDN tragedy, would not be repeated.

Last August, STPDN student Wahyu Hidayat was beaten to death by his fellow students for failing to attend a ceremony. He instead went home to visit his parents. The case highlighted a culture of violence within the school. Antara