Kindergarten pupils are forced to queue in front of a teacher and repeatedly slap their own faces after ‘failing to nap’
- At least four children were ordered to smack themselves by the teacher
- They had to hit their faces non-stop until the teacher allowed them to go
- The pupils had failed to sleep and played with each other, it is claimed
- Education bureau has ordered the teacher to be fired upon investigation
A Chinese kindergarten teacher has been caught on camera forcing her pupils to queue in front of her and repeatedly slap their own faces.
The children were made to carry out the self-punishment as their classmates watched after failing to fall asleep during nap time.
At least four boys and girls were ordered to whack themselves non-stop until the teacher allowed them to go. The female educator has been sacked.
A girl at the top of the queue starts to slap her own face in the kindergarten in eastern China
A second pupil, also a girl, has to smack her face 12 times until her teacher allows her to go
The incident took place on Monday at Tiandu Kindergarten in the county of Xuyi, eastern China’s Jiangsu Province.
The clip, about a minute long, was first released by local newspaper Yangtze Evening News on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter.
The video shows one little girl, who stands next to a teacher wearing a light brown coat, hitting her own face over and over again.
After she strikes herself eight times, the teacher points at her seemingly telling her off before letting her go.
The second pupil, also a girl, then starts to smack herself. She stops briefly after four hits, but the teacher isn’t satisfied. The child ends up slapping herself 12 times.
Two boys then move up the queue and begin to punish themselves one after another. They hit themselves 11 and 10 times respectively before the teacher gestures them to leave.
A boy moves up the queue and begins to hit his face, watched by his teacher and classmates
The last of the four children is told to beat himself again and again until the teacher is satisfied
The kindergarten, also known as Weijia Kindergarten, boasts itself to be an ‘excellent’ kindergarten in the province near Shanghai.
It claims to provide small children with ‘education of modern knowledge as well as traditional Chinese culture and etiquette’ on social media.
Xuyi Education Bureau launched an investigation into the video after it became trending, according to Xinhua News Agency.
The authority found out that the teacher, named Chen Lizhu, penalised the pupils after they played with each other instead of sleeping during the nap time.
The incident took place on Monday at Tiandu Kindergarten, also known as Weijia Kindergarten. A teacher is seen addressing her pupils in the school’s playground during an event last Friday
The teacher claimed to have reminded them repeatedly, but the children still refused to nap and continued to make noise.
Investigators said that Ms Chen had ‘failed to control her temper’, leading her to impose the physical punishment.
The headmaster, a director and a class teacher of the kindergarten apologised to the parents of the children immediately after the incident happened.
The kindergarten also demoted Ms Chen and deducted three months of salary from her.
The local education bureau deemed the penalty too light and today ordered Ms Chen to be fired.
The bureau said it would also give a warning to the headmaster and issue a notice to other schools to criticise the kindergarten.