A young teacher at a vocational school in Sichuan Province has been fired after ordering a class of 63 students to kneel for 20 minutes as a punishment.

Deng Shengli, an official from the Shaomin Vocational School in Hejiang County, was also suspended and the assistant to the principal, Guo Duanqiang, received a demerit.

The county education authority investigated the incident after the teacher, Yuan Furong, had been heavily criticized over the punishment, the Chengdu Business Daily reported yesterday.

Yuan reportedly became angry after being told a student in her nursing class had quarreled with an English teacher. She ordered her class of 63 students to kneel on benches for 20 minutes as a punishment. Four students refused to kneel.

"I felt numb after kneeling for that long," one unnamed student said. "It's really a shame as we are all college students."

Her students said Yuan was hot-headed and it was not rare for her to punish students by making them run around the playground.

Yuan, 20, defended her punishment methods.

"I want to give good education to them," she said. "Only when they feel the pain after kneeling down will they know how hard it is for their parents to support them, and then they will behave well."

(Shanghai Daily April 14, 2009)