A school located in Lagos, Unic Vilos Montessori has been down by the Ministry of Education after a 2-year-old pupil was given 24 strokes of the cane.
While speaking to Channels TV, the Commissioner for Education, Folashade Adefisayo said that the minister ordered the closure of the school after confirming the story.
According to her, the decision was taken after it was discovered that the school, which is located within an elementary school operates without approval.
The victim’s mother, Faustina Ohamadike came online with her daughter’s story after the school proprietress threatened her for confronting the teacher who brutalised her daughter.
Photos shared on social media by a Twitter user, @WakaWakaTailor, showed bruises on the child’s back.
According to the mother of four, baby girl had just resumed school after one week of absence due to an illness.
“She is still in pain, she is the one crying. It happened on Monday. My daughter is not feeling fine. I took her to the hospital, so it was on Saturday (February 5) that she took her last dosage. They always flog them on their forehead or under their palm,” Mrs Ohamadike said.
“So, when I got home I…saw her lying down, I held her hand, she screamed, I was shocked, I wanted to touch the other hand she also screamed, I had to drop my bag and (turn) on my phone torch. I removed her clothes and there are so many bruises all over her back. I was like who did this to this girl? I don’t have a cane in my house.
Mrs Ohamadike said she confronted the proprietress who told her that her child was flogged because she was asked to read and she refused.
“I said this one is too much, mama I will not take it. Who flogged her? She now said Ms Joy, I said mama bring Ms Joy out. She said the teacher wasn’t around. …let her give me the reason why she will flog this girl, this girl that is not feeling fine. And my son said that she fell as they were flogging her and she was crying,” the victim’s mother said.
The toddler’s family reportedly lives opposite the school, in which the proprietress and the teacher who allegedly gave 24 strokes of the cane lives too.
Having confirmed the incident, Mrs Adefisayo said that a combined team of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, the Domestic Violence and Response Unit, and the Ministry of Youths and Social Development, arrested the teacher and proprietress on Monday.
While the proprietress was released earlier in the week, the teacher is still in detention.
The recent development further adds to the growing cases of caregivers’ maltreatment of school children, a development that has raised concerns about the criteria for teachers who take care of toddlers.
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Lagos Government Shuts Down School for Excessively Flogging 2-Year-Old Pupil (photos)