CAIRO: The Alexandria Criminal Court set Nov. 16 as the trial date of 23-year-old mathematics teacher Haitham Nabil Abdel Hamid, who kicked 11-year-old Islam Amr Bader to death last week.
The story, which made headline news last week, triggered a delayed official reaction, with the Minister of Education Yousry El-Gamal announcing that he condemns “the school violence phenomenon that reached its peak [with Islam’s death].
Deputy Minister Reda Abou Serae told the press 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.
In a related story the prosecution office in the Delta city of Mahalla is still investigating the case of the teacher who had beaten up some 15 students.
The students were all transferred to hospital following the assault.
The students had accused their 25-year-old Arabic language teacher Mohamed Abdel Fadil of harshly beating them with a broomstick.
