Five new pupils from a secondary school in Zimbabwe had to go to hospital this month for treatment after they were allegedly beaten by a teacher – even though corporal punishment is not permitted under the constitution, a newspaper is reporting.

The state-run Chronicle says the Solusi High School teacher used “a log, stick, fists or anything that he could get hold of” to beat the pupils, all apparently from Form One.

That means they only started at the school in January.

One of the boys told the paper he’d been beaten for being late to the dining hall.

Zimbabwe’s new constitution, adopted in 2013 outlaws corporal punishment. A landmark court ruling in 2015 banned the caning of juvenile offenders by the courts, but the practice of caning persists in some schools.

The Sunday Mail reported in August 2015 that “indiscipline” had soared in schools where there was no more caning, and said they were becoming “breeding grounds for rowdiness”.

There’s been no comment from the Solusi High School over this latest incident.

A headmistress in Epworth in Harare was charged with murder in early 2015 after a pupil died following a beating, the Herald reported then.