‘Boy stayed with tuition teacher to learn Mandarin’
JOHOR BARU: A tuition teacher who allegedly scalded her 7-yearold pupil’s buttocks with a heated wok, had taken in the boy to stay with her to improve his command of Mandarin, the Chinese language, and to instil discipline.
The boy’s 24-year old sister told the New Straits Times that her brother found it hard to cope with the Chinese language as he had attended an English-medium kindergarten and was now a Year One pupil at a Chinese vernacular primary school.
“My brother, who is the youngest among six siblings, found the transition from English to Chinese difficult. His schoolteachers said he had not been doing his homework. That was why we sent him for tuition classes since December.
She said the family had checked with other parents and the school bus driver before they decided to let the boy stay with her.
“My brother was not the only boy staying at her house. There were two or three other pupils living there. We talked to him everyday over the phone. He never told us that he was being beaten,” she said, adding that he was with the teacher for two weeks before she found out about the abuse.
“We had a family gathering on Saturday and I wanted to bring him home but the teacher told us to let the boy stay at her house.
“She said my brother was taking things from the other pupils.”
On Sunday, the boy ran away from his tuition teacher’s house and hid at a neighbour’s home.
Neighbours, who saw him jumping over a fence, contacted the boy’s sister.
The sister lodged a police report at 10pm the same day.
The boy suffered second-degree burns and scalding after a wok and cups soaked in hot water were applied to his body by the teacher to remove severe rotan marks. He is being treated at a government hospital.
The sister also said other teachers and pupils would join the female teacher whenever he was abused.
Johor Baru Utara district police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Taib Ahmad said two female tuition teachers, aged 23 and 34, were arrested yesterday.