The incident came to light after the boy’s older brother, known only as Lim, posted photos of the child’s badly bruised buttocks on Facebook, The Star reported.

According to the report, the brother demanded an explanation from the tuition centre, claiming that the boy escaped to a neighbour’s house after the abuse.

The paper said a police report was lodged at the Johor Baru Central police station yesterday, while visits by the daily to the tuition centre in Taman Ungku Tun Aminah, Skudai proved fruitless as the teacher was not in.

This case is only one among many involving the abuse of children or students at the hands of their teachers.

On Jan 19 this year, media reports said three education officials and a secondary school principal in Kulai were forced to apologise after a discipline teacher allegedly beat a student with a shoe for talking to his friend during class.

Despite the apology, however, the student’s parents were told the school was unable to dismiss the teacher.

The teacher was subsequently transferred to a different session, The Star said.

Last April, a four-year-old was reportedly abused in a private kindergarten for coughing and vomiting in class.

The child’s mother said CCTV footage showed the teacher hitting the boy four times and forcing him to stand for three hours.

Following the incident, the mother withdrew her child from the school. Authorities said the case would be settled between the family and the kindergarten.