Chinese teacher cuts off pupil's finger

By Duncan Hewitt in Shanghai

A teacher who cut off part of a pupil's finger has been jailed for 18 months by a court in eastern China.

Another teacher was suspended for ordering an unruly pupil to eat 1,000 flies

The case is the latest in a series of violent incidents in Chinese schools which one newspaper said had reached worrying proportions.

When six-year-old Li Xinjiang playfully stole a pair of shoes from his younger brother in class, his teacher, Lin Yifen, lost her temper.

According to the Shanghai Youth Daily, she picked up a pair of scissors and cut off a third of the boy's left index finger.

Investigations revealed that the teacher, who had been at the school for two years, had no professional qualifications.

Beaten to death

A court in Zhejiang province sentenced Lin to 18 months on charges of deliberate injury, and ordered her to pay compensation to the boy's family for medical costs.

The case has highlighted what the Worker's Daily newspaper this week called an alarming increase in violence towards pupils - often by young and poorly trained teachers.

In one recent case, a teacher in southern China was suspended for ordering an unruly pupil to eat 1,000 flies, while a teacher at the famous Shaolin Martial Arts School was recently arrested for beating a student to death.

The Workers' Daily said many teachers and parents alike still believed that harsh treatment of students would produce good academic results.

Suicide

China, which has yet to introduce compulsory teaching qualifications, has announced that all teachers will now be assessed for competence.

Yet there are worries that this will put even more pressure on teachers to produce good academic results, and that this could translate into further tough treatment of pupils.

The pressure has told on students too, in a country where only 3% of high school graduates can get places at university.

Earlier this year one middle school student killed his mother after she pressurised him to achieve good exam results. Student suicides are also reported to be on the increase.