In our issue last Saturday, we had a report with the headline “Headmaster beats up students over fees”.
NewsDay Editorial
The alleged incident happened at Glen View 1 High School in Harare on January 30 this year. The Primary and Secondary Education ministry has instituted investigations.
No stone should be left unturned to get to the bottom of this, which – if proved to be so – should earn the headmaster the severest possible penalty.
To show the unreasonableness and unfairness of it all, one parent whose daughter was one of the alleged victims of the headmaster, fumed: “Is it my daughter’s fault that I have not paid the fees?”
Nowhere in the regulations and rules governing schools does it say failure to pay fees on the part of the parent or guardian constitutes a disciplinary offence against the pupil or student. This is not and cannot be a disciplinary matter.
When children go to school, they look up to the headmaster to give them physical, psychological and emotional support and protection. A headmaster must not behave like a schoolyard bully. In fact, such conduct on their part encourages bullies.
Schools are where children get the ethical and moral foundation to become good and contributing citizens of Zimbabwe and beyond in this globalised world.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
That is where they get the grounding for life in order to mature into well-adjusted adults. The headmaster and his staff are entrusted to ensure this, but if they do the opposite, they must be promptly removed – they don’t belong there!
Another parent, who found his child in tears when he went to the school, said: “My daughter was clapped by the headmaster because I had not paid the school levy. I approached the school with $70, but they refused to take it, saying they needed the whole amount of $140, so I ended up not paying the levy.”
This could have prompted the headmaster to take such drastic, illegal measures because most of the levy goes straight into the pockets of teachers, so failure by parents to remit the whole sum deprives the headmaster and his staff. Because of this, headmasters can afford to have the luxury of refusing partial payment of fees depriving schools of money for other essential needs and provisions until the levy is paid.
Ordinary Zimbabweans are struggling daily to merely exist, not that they are so irresponsible as to wilfully default on their obligations.
There is need to take a relook at this at national level because what allegedly happened at Glen View High 1 is most likely not an isolated incident.
The government must revise teachers’ salaries upwards and those of the parents too. The money is there if the government exercises political will to come down hard on shocking tax evasion and corruption among its ranks, which has impoverished the ordinary Zimbabwean, leaving schools, hospitals — in fact, almost everything — in a decaying and collapsed state.
That said, any headmaster who oversteps in the manner alleged at Glen View High 1 must face the music. Granted that teachers are lowly paid, headmasters cannot take it out on innocent children. They are not pawns on a chessboard.
It is unacceptable to resort to physical and emotional abuse of children put under your charge. This is tantamount to blackmailing the softest and easiest targets in society.
