A complaint was lodged against one teacher who used nasty terms like 'idiot' and 'moron' on her students.

The constant 'verbal abuse' by the co-curricular teacher made at least one student demoralised, reported the Wanbao.

The Secondary One student alleged that the music teacher - who coaches the students in the 'gu zheng' or zithe - uses terms like 'bai chi' and 'wang ba dan' (loosely translated as 'morons' and 'idiots') when scolding students.

It was the girl's brother who alerted Wanbao to the news, after hearing about his sister's complaints.

Mr Wu, 22, said her sister had initially shown a very keen interest in learning the traditional chinese instrument. Their mother had even forked out $500 to buy her a zither of her own so she could practise at home.

After half a year however, they saw that the girl's interest had waned and she appeared unhappy. That was when they learnt about the scoldings the students had to endure.

In one example, the girl recounted that when she was late for the lesson, the teacher had asked the class where the 'idiot' was. When the students could not give her a reply, she scolded them for being 'morons'.

When Mr Wu called to speak to the teacher, she explained that she was only 'joking' when she made those comments. 

Teacher undergoing counselling

When contacted by Wanbao, a spokesperson for the school said that the school authorities are aware of the incident, and that the teacher is undergoing counselling.

The school has also spoken to all students involved. It maintained that the school places a high importance in the quality and professionalism of all teachers - internal and external - that it hires. 

According to the spokesperson, the teacher has been made aware that she has to be more careful in the words she chooses and the tone she adopts.

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