Egyptian schoolboy dies after being beaten by his teacher

Corporal punishment is illegal but widespread in Egypt

Smog over the city of Cairo, where the alleged beating took place (Creative Commons)

An Egyptian schoolboy has died after being beaten by his teacher as a punishment, the country’s education ministry has said.

The boy, who was in the fifth grade, died of a brain haemorrhage due to severe head injuries, according to local media.

The incident happened at a primary school in Cairo, the ministry said in a statement.

The Directorate of Education in Cairo is set to launch an “urgent investigation” in to the death.

A statement by the country’s education ministry said the boy was in the Fifth Grade, which would normally make him 10 or 11 years old.

Iran’s Press TV channel said the boy was 12 years old, however.

Corporal punishment has long been officially banned by ministerial decree in Egyptian schools, but it is reported to still be relatively common in practice.

A 2009 Alexandria University of 400 fifth-grade primary school children in Egypt found that around three quarters of them had been corporally punished.

Most of those punished were physically disciplined at least once a week.

Last year Osama Mohammed Othman, the manager of a Cairo orphanage, was sentenced to three years in prison for assaulting children with a stick.