Egyptian teacher given prison term

The incident has attracted public attention to the failings of Egypt’s state education system in which young, inexperienced and under-resourced teachers often struggle to control classes of up to 100 children.

The teacher’s lawyer was quoted as saying that, “Hitting (a child) is not banned in schools and my client did not break the law.”

Abdel Hamid said he only meant to discipline his pupil and did not mean to hurt anyone.