CAIRO: The father of a student attending Kafr Al-Zayat Primary School in El-Gharbiya governorate assaulted her teacher and school principal on Wednesday. Mahmoud Karkor, Sohaila's father, kicked both her teacher and the school's principle after they refused to allow him to take his daughter home before the end of the school day. The father had asked the teacher to allow Sohaila to leave the classroom during the school day. Karkor ended the argument by hitting the teacher. He then headed to the principal's office. There the quarrel turned into a fight, where Karkor physically assaulted the principal, Ismail Amoush. The fight came to an end after the police arrived to the school upon Amoush's request. Violence is common in schools. While corporal punishment is prevalent, it's not uncommon for parents to assault teachers in the schools which their children attend. The Ministry of Education has recently introduced a new project to monitor the violence phenomenon in schools. Through this project, the minister would personally hold daily video conferences with school principals from all parts of the country to get first-hand reports about any violent incidents. The ministry has also created a hotline 19126 for students and teachers to directly report to the ministry incidents of violence. School violence had come under the spotlight after a 23-year-old teacher beat an 11-year-old student to death in an Alexandria school. The Alexandria Criminal Court set Nov. 16 as the trial date of mathematics teacher Haitham Nabil Abdel Hamid for beating 11-year-old Islam Amr Bader to death. Islam's death story, which made headline news last week, triggered a delayed official reaction, with the Minister of Education Yosry El-Gamal later announcing that he condemns "the school violence phenomenon that reached its peak [with Islam's death]. Deputy Minister Reda Abou Serae told the press at the time that the Ministry of Education will continue to follow up on this incident and has sent a written decree to all schools prohibiting the use of violence. However, the Right to Education, a non-governmental organization, called for El-Gamal's resignation, and asked the government to take action against him and the "deterioration of the education system under El-Gamal's leadership.
