Thato Chwaane
20 February 2008
Otse — The visibly emotional headmaster of Moeding College, Marcos Maedza, yesterday told parents amid reports of ill-treatment of students by their peers, that the school had no peace in 2008. Devastated parents, many of whom got information that their children had been forced to sleep in nearby bushes that provided overnight refuge from marauding Form Five colleagues who tortured male and female 'new comers' alike, listened to the unfolding travesty.
"We have a problem here and we can't let this go on," he added. He related how a student was made to undress, his pubic hair shaved and the hair burnt while the other boys were forced to inhale the fumes.
He said that after this the boys would not tell on the culprits, compelling the management to send the students home so that they should bring their parents along. The headmaster broke down and had to be assisted by Reverend Dummie Mmualefe, a board member of the school.
He related how on his second day at the school, on January 29 after power cuts, he heard a lot of noise and met with a female student running away from three boys.
He was told that the Form Four students had run away into the bushes and the other students wanted to smoke them out.
Maedza said he heard that the Form Fours were afraid of their seniors. He said he was surprised that the younger boys ran into the bushes instead of the hostels in pitch dark.
He said he took the school vehicle together with the head boy and other students in search of the students outside the school premises. Maedza said that the next day he received several calls from parents saying that their children had slept in the bushes.He also said the security also revealed that six boys had slept outside the boarding master's house. He said ill-treatment had caused one child from Kopong being pulled out of school.
Mmualefe said the students went about hurling insults in school, in buses, with some even going over the walls into Lobatse Secondary School. He said that teachers were taught to teach children not criminals.
"We won't allow this," he said. The school will be run like a college of the church, he emphasised. He said that instead of a 20 day suspension for bad behaviour, in extreme cases, they want immediate expulsion. He said the college was not a reformatory and that police would have to intervene in criminal acts.
Mmualefe said that since the students were sent away last Thursday, some still have not gone home.
The chair of the Board of Governors of Moeding College, Dr Bolelang Pheko said the school was Christian-based where students learn to be humble. She read out some of the threats the students had made against Maedza. Some threatened: 'You will die. F*** off, sir. Se re itse go ithuta - do not deny us learming'. She said those who cannot abide by the college's rules should leave. The chief education officer of south central region, Itumeleng Lubinda, said he did not understand what had gotten into the students.
"What is happening now is something we are not used to," he said. He said that this was a challenge to the education system, the parents and public.
Lubinda said he was surprised that the same students who are now Form Fives complained about being ill-treated last September but they are now abusing Form Fours.
The parents and their sons were asked to secretly fill in forms stating who assaulted the others and who hurled insults, also indicating their names and class. The names will be compiled and the case started from there. Some parents said how upset they were about the turn of events at the college.
"Ke ne ka roroma, ke utlwa mogokgo a bua - I was shaking when I heard the headmaster talking," said one parent. Another parent from Mmathethe called for thrashing of students if they misbehave.
Keamogetse Sefore from Otse said she sometimes wonders why the government does not close the school. She said a few years ago, students burnt the school. She said she could not understand why all this was happening.
"A ke bana ba Ditshwanelo - Are these Ditshwanelo human rights children?" she asked.
Kgamane Supang said that the management should be applauded for taking such a step. He suggested that boarding facilities should be closed to stop the abuse. Some of the abuses faced by Form Four students were spreading fibre glass in blankets. Others were forced to stay nude, while others were beaten with sticks.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
