Kindergarten student dies after teacher hits him with slate

HYDERABAD: An upper kindergarten (UKG) student, five-year-old Hemanth, died after being reportedly struck on the head with a slate by his teacher, who meted out physical punishment to the student for allegedly failing to complete his homework.

The incident happened at a play school in Vivek Nagar near Ramanthapur. According to reports, Hemanth was beaten up at school on Friday and collapsed. Informed by the school authorities, his parents, Nagaraju and Sharada, daily wage earners, took the boy home. He died on Monday. Parents and relatives staged a protest in front of the school and shifted the body to their native village in Wanaparthy district for final rites.

Hemanth’s relative Ravinder told Deccan Chronicle that the child was sick for the past week and was admitted to a local hospital.  “He was running a high fever and fell unconscious on the ground in the school. In the process, he suffered a head injury,” he said.

Uppal inspector R. Govinda Reddy told Deccan Chronicle that they had not received any complaint and he was not aware of such an incident.