The incident at UNIC Vilos Montessori School, MazaMaza, Lagos in which a teacher gave a two year old pupil 24 strokes of the cake, has continued to be a talking point among residents within the school environment. Our reporter visited the school earlier today and spoke with some residents who condemned the incident in it’s entirety.
“This is the consequence of employing unqualified teachers. A lot of the reachers involved in this type of condemnable acts did not read education; some are not even graduates. Why on earth should one give a two year old twenty four strokes of the cane. This is a child that should ordinarily still be sucking breast. This is sad and I think the government has done the right thing by closing up the school”, said one of the residents Mr. Israel Isiaka who studied Primary Education in the university.
According the information made available to our news desk, a teacher of the school, one Eucharia Agu had flogged the two years old baby girl 24 times for her inability to sound letters “I and U”. In the process, the baby was allegedly left with varying degrees of injuries and bruises including cane marks on her body. The school was immediately closed down by the Lagos State Government, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Ministry of Education as soon as it heard and confirmed the incident.
According to Mr. Israel in an interview with our reporter, “Because they do not have the right orientation in teaching, they behave anyhow. A teacher who studied education can never behave like this. A teacher must have certificate in education. That will enable him or her learn the behaviours of children and how best to impact knowledge in them. I really condemn the action of the teacher. But it is a lesson to others”, he said.
The building was originally used for religious worship until a task force team from the state Ministry of Environment demolished a portion of it that the officials said was too close to the canal and impeding the flow of water. After it was renovated, part of it was converted to school.
The school has remained under lock and keys since it was shut down by the government. It was gathered that some parents of pupils that were in the closed-down school have already enrolled their children in other nearby schools.
The mother of the brutalised 2 years old child in an interview with The Guardian had expressed her grievance saying “How can she flog a two-year-old child 24-strokes of cane and the cane broke on her body because she can’t pronounce the letters I and S. “Che Che has not been feeling well. She was not in school for one week before the incident and her teacher was aware, she took her last injection on Saturday, February 5, 2022, and resumed school on Monday, February 7, 2022, the same day she was flogged.”
“The owner of the school lied to me that she was not aware of the incident. It’s very bad, what if my daughter gave up immediately? The girl is going through pains and she can’t sleep because of the bruises on her back, she threw up any food given to her.
“I can’t afford hospital bills, so, there is a nurse treating her at home. My anger is that the teacher told me she’s going to flog my daughter again on her leg where nobody will see the marks, and the owner of the school told me that it’s just flogging.”
When The Guardian reporter asked why she didn’t report the case at the police station, she said: “We are poor, we don’t have money to prosecute any case. My husband is just a petty trader. I was told that it was not only my daughter that was flogged but my daughter was beaten severely.”
