A Hanoi-based teacher who was fined and banned from teaching for insulting a student by calling him “pig brain” could receive more punishment as the municipal chairman has requested that the headline-making case be examined further.

The Hanoi education department should coordinate with relevant agencies to look into the case involving Nguyen Thi Kim Tuyen and the MST English center, and impose stern punishment for any violations found, according to Nguyen Duc Chung, chairman of the municipal administration.

The education department was also required to report the results to the administration by May 15, Chung said in a directive on Tuesday.

Tuyen was filmed engaging in an intense argument with one of the learners inside her classroom, operated by MST English, during which she called him “pig brain” and “pig face,” which means "extremely idiotic" in this context.

“No [English] center out there is capable of turning a pig like you into a human,” she said in the video, which was uploaded on Facebook last weekend.

The incident started after Tuyen demanded that the student pay VND100,000 (US$4.4) as he had broken the center's rules by not handing in homework on schedule.

However, the student refused to do so and called her a “fraud.”

The fine was listed among the “discipline of steel” applied at the center, and learners are required to sign a commitment to comply with such rules at the beginning of the course.

The inspectorate from the municipal education department has recently imposed a fine worth VND5 million ($220) upon Tuyen and required her to stop all teaching activities.

MST English, with three locations in Hanoi, was shut down for failing to obtain a license to operate as a foreign language training facility.

The MST Education System JSC, whose director is Tuyen, was also fined VND20 million ($880) for operating the center without permission from local authorities.

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