They laid emphasis on introducing effective laws to stop physical and mental punishment of children in educational institutions to ensure proper growth of their mental health.

The roundtable was organised by National Child Parliament of Save the Children Australia at the National Press Club in the city.

Academics, political leaders, legal experts, psychiatrists and a number of children took part in the roundtable.

Mehtab Khanam, psychiatrist and professor of psychology department of Dhaka University (DU), said parents' superstition that children cannot learn if they are not punished by teachers in school and their lack of awareness about children's psychology result in physical and mental punishment of children.

She also blamed teachers' poor salary as another cause saying " Poor wages of teachers lead them to frustration and frustrated teachers often become violent with children in the school."

" Mental health is a very vital issue for children, but this is always neglected in our society. Most people do not know that a mind also suffers from diseases like a body," said Prof Mehtab.

Prof Monsur Musa, former director general of Bangla Academy, said primary school curricula are not prepared considering children's psychology and their readability.

Comparing with the primary school curricula of China, Japan and Korea, Prof Musa, a specialist in primary education curricula, said education language policy in our country is also faulty which creates a teacher-student communication problem in the class.

"All these things lead to teacher-student conflict and as teachers beat the students or rebuke them, they lose interest in study and do not want to come to school," he observed.

Moderated by child litterateur Ali Imam, the roundtable was also addressed by former Law minister Abdul Matin Khasru, Prof Syed Anwar Hossain, Workers' Party President Rashed Khan Menon, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal President Hasanul Haq Inu, Law Commission Member Dr Enamul Haq, DU teacher Dr Mahbubur Rahman and a number of National Child Parliament members.