I cannot begin to comprehend the rigmarole at Springlands Nursery School. Three consecutive school days now, my five-year-old niece came home with brands on her upper arm and her back, inflicted by a junior teacher. Last December an incident of a similar nature involving this teacher was reported to the Department of Education but to no avail.

The teacher teaches a parallel Level 2 class but often leaves her class to take out her frustration on the children nearby, especially when the class teacher goes to the University of Guyana Berbice Campus.

Last December, this teacher whipped my niece with a piece of bamboo in her palms because she answered a question incorrectly. That teacher was not disciplined even though the matter reached the level of the Department of Education in Region Six. Since then, it has been hell for this little child.  The teacher constantly insults her and whips her. She often visits the class to hurl abusive remarks at her…‘Don’t look at me! How meh na like dis gyal. Meh can gee she waan slap.’ My niece is very smart and she would recall most of what is said to her.

On May 24 the teacher pushed her out on the school verandah and every time the child tried to get back in the school, she kept hitting her with a whip. It is a two-storey building and she could have caused that child to fall down that stairs as they are on the upper flat of the school. How ethical is this teacher’s action?

On May 25 the child did not want to attend school, and that attitude is unlike her. She kept crying and complaining that the teacher would beat her again. Nevertheless, we managed to get her to go to school only to receive more ‘licks’. I have learnt now that my niece must not get out of her seat because that triggers the teacher to whip and insult her. I understand the children usually shout, ‘Miss Look (child’s name) get outta sheh chair!’

The teacher boasts about her relationship with an education official. The education authorities have refused to discipline the teacher last December. A report was subsequently made to Springlands Police Station on that occasion and another was made on Tuesday, May 25 but to no avail. The teacher remarked that the police would not intervene because she and them are ‘arite’. Apparently, this is so but while she is ‘arite’ with the police at Springlands and the education authorities at the ‘department‘ this does not give her the right to traumatise my niece and to whip her unnecessarily.

This teacher has been the reason for two parents transferring their children to other Nursery Schools. Parents cannot deal with the blows she inflicts on their children. She told the child’s grandmother on June 25 ‘…Me nah want dis pickney in dis school. She sappose to transfer lang.’

This teacher should desist from traumatising my niece. I need this nonsense to stop at once as it has already had psychological effect on the child. My niece loves school and now she is begging not to return. The teacher should leave her problems at the school gate and teach the nation’s children properly. After all, that is what she is paid to do.

The education authorities in Region Six have allowed this teacher to victimise, terrorise and inflict injuries on nursery school children for too long. It is time that the relevant authorities address the problem at Springlands Nursery School. Such teachers contribute to learning deficiencies in the classrooms.