Boarding schools in India and abroad are considered tough and strict. Often, cases of punishment of children staying in hostels become newspaper headlines.
A similar incident took place in Yundong Secondary School in China's Shanxi province, where incidents of students being punished by staff members for using the toilet at night came to light.
According to a report by South China Morning Post (SCMP) that cited Beijing News, the student went to the washroom at 11 pm, which is 15 minutes past curfew, and was caught.
Following this, he was reprimanded by the staff members, and the boarding school administrators forced him to write a 'deep self-reflection' letter and distribute 1,000 photocopies of the essay to his schoolmates as punishment. The school even deducted five points from his class’s monthly discipline score.
The Beijing News further reported, citing a teacher, that students were prohibited from walking around the dormitory after 10:45 PM, including a bar on using the toilet. The students needed to contact dorm administrators for permission in case they wanted to use the toilet after curfew.
As quoted by SCMP, the student's letter read, “I have seriously breached the school rules, and going to the toilet in the evening not only disturbed other students’ sleep but also brought shame to my class.” He even apologised to his classmates and teachers, stating he would not repeat the same mistake.
The incident has gained momentum in social media, and people have compared the boarding school with a prison.
The South China Morning Post reported that the Education Department of Huairen asked the institute to reflect on its errors in reaction to the incident.
“We instructed the school to learn from this incident and reflect on its errors. We told them to revise their discipline policies,” SCMP quoted the education authority as saying.
Apart from this, the Education Department of Huairen directed the school to engage with the boy caringly, mandating compensation of 100 yuan to cover the cost of copying the self-reflection essay.
Also, the department directed all schools in the city to implement appropriate and humane discipline policies in future.
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