One day, a primary school boy murmured something to himself while carrying dung in a bucket. Another child next to him informed the teacher about it. The teacher rushed to the child, beat him and kicked him in the face with his boots when he fell.

"You s.o.b.! Now, you go into this dung pit and clean the bottom with your hands, you got it?" The child was already so badly beaten that he could hardly get up. The teacher kicked the weak child into the temporary and shallow dung pit. The child struggled hard to get out of the pit.

The teacher was furious and kicked him into the dung pit again. The child was trying to get out of it again when the teacher kicked his head hard. By this time, the child was covered with dung and blood all over his body and terribly injured. He could hardly hold himself up but he was given the punishment of carrying dung the rest of that day. He was whipped hard each time he moved slowly or stopped moving. He was told to use his hands to get dung out of the bucket and spread it in the field. The child had worked hard the entire morning and part of the afternoon when he finally fainted with foam in his mouth. The other children trembled with anger at the teacher for his barbaric punishment but could not help the child for fear of punishment and the awful smell of dung on him. The children went home at sunset but the child remained on the ground motionless, lying on the ground until found dead the following morning.

When I went to school the next morning, I heard a loud moaning. I saw the child's mother holding her dead son and crying. There were a few teachers and the school principal was also there; none of them showed the slightest regret or remorse. Rather, they were angry.

"You s.o.b! Watch this closely. Remember. This is what's going to happen to you if you disobey your teachers. Do you understand?" The children, who watched and heard this, trembled with fear and anger.

The school teachers had various ways of punishing children and were extremely cruel. Beating is a standard practice. Other punishments include forcing children to move around the exercise ground on their hands and knees and cleaning the ground with their hands, making children stand in the sun all day long or making them repeatedly shout, "I am a dog!" Some children became physically or mentally disturbed as a result of the severe beatings and punishments.