Gujarat school teacher cuts off student's hair as punishment for failing to use oil, fired

A teacher shaved a student's hair off as punishment for failing to apply oil over it. The teacher was fired after the complaint was filed.

The incident occurred at the Swaminarayan Gurukul School of Jamnagar on Tuesday morning when the accused teacher used a blade to shave off the girl student's hair. The accused mentioned that she did not use hair oil.

After the incident, her parents registered a written complaint to the District Education Officer, and it led to official action from the Education Department.

The institution has a history of being in the news, and the most recent incident brought back to center stage campus disciplinary action.

The mother of the student, Anjaliben Gandha, accused the entire school culture of punishment. "The children get punished at school for such small things. Even if the child has forgotten a book, 100 sit-ups is what they give them as punishment. Our children are so afraid that they recall the school by name alone," she complained.

A comparable complaint was similarly filed from Navanagar Government High School, in which one teacher was reportedly accused of shaving a student's hair for the same reasons.

Shashiben Das, Education Director at Swaminarayan Gurukul, also confirmed the firing. "I was jobless when we dismissed the school. The principal came to notify me of this. We do not permit our kids to have long hair, and if they do not trim their hair, we even warn parents. But this was not so. Shortened the child's hair had the physical education teacher done, and that is why we dismissed him. We called a sit-down meeting with all the other workers and everybody was made aware of this."

District Education Officer Vipul Mehta stated, "Today, two schools in Jamnagar have filed a complaint, both of which are parents of students. In both of them, the complaint is that hair of children has been shaved. Orders have been given so that nothing like this ever happens in other schools, and teachers of both schools have been taken action against."

Both show-cause notices and investigations were launched by the Education Department.