Corporal punishment in the classroom was back in focus on Thursday with three students of Class VII being caned by their teacher who apologised within 24 hours.

Rajdeep Chowdhury, Rahul Dutta and Sourajit Banerjee of Shyambazar AV School were caned by Kalyan Panda on Wednesday for scoring low marks in a unit test. On Thursday, the Sanskrit teacher apologised and promised that he would never inflict corporal punishment on a student again.

This comes a week after the state government announced a decision to formulate rules to implement the ban on corporal punishment.

“The teacher had shown the unit test papers to some students and since they had scored low marks in two successive tests, he caned them. Being young and inexperienced, he lost his cool, perhaps. But this is unacceptable and will not be repeated,” said headmaster M. Raptan.

Panda, in his mid-20s, joined the school about eight months ago and is set to leave for a Barasat school next month.

The students were caned in the sixth period on Wednesday. “Sir came to class, asked me why I had not done well in the test and started beating me with a cane,” said Sourajit, bearing red welts on his left arm (in picture by Amit Datta). Rahul was next in the line of the teacher’s ire.

Seeing his friends being caned, Rajdeep excused himself and left the class. “I was very afraid and went to the toilet, but Sir sent another boy to look for me. He caned me several times on my legs and hands.”

The parents of the boys complained to the headmaster and were assured of a guardians’ meeting on Thursday morning. “The headmaster gave us a patient hearing and the teacher was made to apologise. But the way our boys were caned is unpardonable,” said Rajdeep’s mother Dalia, a homemaker.

The school administration made its stand clear. “We cannot accept corporal punishment on campus. I will convene a teachers’ meeting on Friday. If students continue to be punished like this, I will be forced to take action,” said principal Raptan.

The police were quick to step in. “We received a call late on Wednesday that something untoward had happened at Shyambazar AV School. The principal told us what had happened,” said an officer of Shyampukur police station.