It pains the hearts of many, no doubt, to read an editorial headlined "Another Minor Tortured", as was published in The Daily Star on November 13 this year.

The editorial notes that a frightened seven-year-old boy in Pabna, Md. Siam Hossain, had been confined to a room in a madrassa for some days with his feet tied in chains by a sadistic teacher.

Describing the cruel, sadistic law-breaker as a teacher is wrong, unfair and insulting to hard-working, compassionate, professional teachers and their honourable profession. He is not deserving of the noble title of a teacher, but, sadly, he is not alone.

It's been almost five years since eminent High Court Divisional bench Justices Md. Imman Ali and Md. Sheikh Hasan Arif outlawed corporal punishment in Bangladeshi schools and madrassas.

In their summary on January 13, 2011, they defined corporal punishment as "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and a clear violation of a child's fundamental right to life, liberty and freedom."

I doubt if they even contemplated for a moment that a teacher would chain a helpless little child, away from his home, family and friends, and lock him in solitary confinement and ration his food as a means of torture. There are some horrific examples of corporal punishment to children that the human mind could not even imagine, unless perhaps you were author Stephen King, prince of the macabre.

A 'classic' case is that of the demented 'teacher' at Talimul Quran Mahila Madrassa who branded young girls with a red-hot cooking spatula in the name of 'discipline'. The objective of the exercise was to give them a sample of what hell is like! If she taught them nothing else, she certainly taught them that.

If this 'teacher' or any 'teacher' believes that such treatments will break a child's will, discipline the child and gain them respect, they are far more uneducated and stupid then I had ever imagined and should be a 100-miles from any teaching establishment. Not only are they breaking the law, they're also an enemy of the child, his/her family, and the State. A child damaged today is a broken adult tomorrow and owes NOTHING to society, except what society has given him/her (and we ought to view that as a warning).

The hard-hitting editorial that calls a spade a spade goes on to say… "We cannot emphasise enough the need for the government to thoroughly monitor the behaviour of teachers towards their students, whether in madrassas or regular schools. Clear directives must be given to the authorities of these institutes regarding what constitutes the violation of a child's rights and that such violations will be severely punished by law.

"It is not enough to suspend or fire teachers who physically and mentally harm students who have come to them for learning. The offenders must be arrested and meted out appropriate sentences that will deter other potential torturers from committing the same crime."

Bravo! These 'teachers' need to be weeded out from the educational system that gives teaching a bad name, chokes the growth of Bangladeshi children and damages them for life.

Having said that, I believe involving the police, criminal charges, convictions, imprisonment and so on, should be a last resort. The Education Department which is ultimately responsible for the behaviour of its employees ought to instigate a programme of self-regulation within each school at first before the heavy hammers are used.

Each school should be given an opportunity of cleaning-up its act. Give the head teacher all the support needed to do this and then hold the head teacher accountable for any misconduct by the teaching staff, irrespective of whether they have been in the profession for 40-years, have families and dogs to feed or their relative is a member of parliament.

The aim of the exercise should be to recognise the tumors in the system, address them, and bring about change for the benefit of the children of Bangladesh . . . for the benefit of the entire nation. Child abuse by salaried government employees has been going on for much too long, even after the law formulated in 2011 strictly prohibited it.

Teachers themselves need to be more conscious of the fact that parents and guardians are beginning to exercise their children's rights by 'vigilante law', and are becoming less tolerant of corporal punishment towards their loved ones. Several teachers have been beaten up by incensed family members in reprisal for corporal punishment, and this must also stop. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Nowadays, before subjecting the child to any form of corporal punishment, 'teachers' need to pause and ask themselves if their action will have a boomerang effect.

If they proceed with the unlawful wrongdoing, they act alone without the support of the Prime Minister, the government, the Education Department, the police, the child's family, the local community and conscientious fellow teachers.

The general opinion is that there are enough crimes in society already without they teaching them in the classrooms.

The writer is a former newspaper and magazine publisher and editor, a royal goodwill ambassador and humanitarian.