Learners marched 10 kilometres to protest - only to end up at the wrong Department of Education offices.
|||These pupils marched 10 kilometres in protest, only to end up at the wrong education department office.
Yesterday, angry learners from Dr Nelson Mandela High School in Crossroads boycotted classes and shut down the school.
They demanded that school principal Linda Mnothoze be fired.
After burning a dustbin in the school yard, the learners decided to take their grievances to the nearest education department.
Hundreds of angry pupils marched down New Eisleben Road, went over a busy bridge on Highlands Drive and down AZ Berman Drive.
The 10 kilometre walk took the group nearly an hour to get to Mitchell’s Plain.
Unbeknownst to the learners, they had gone to the wrong district office.
Officials at the premises of the Metropole South District informed the pupils their school did not fall under their district but they would listen to their complaints.
On their list of grievances were the following:
* The students claim that corporal punishment still exists at the school.
* That they were wrongly being charged fees of R200 and that to their knowledge public schools did not require any fees.
* They stated that the school comes out at 4.30pm [this is dangerous as gangsters often wait outside for them].
* They also allege the principal insults successful initiates who are regarded as men by calling them boys.
First term tests that were scheduled to be written yesterday were cancelled.
The learners stated they will only write the tests once the principal has been fired.
Tests set for today may also be affected.
A Grade 11 learner, Sixolile Somazembe, 19, says the principal is abusive towards the initiates.
“Our principal does not treat us well because he doesn’t respect our culture and often deliberately calls us boys,” he says
Initiation
“He also makes us take off our hats and jackets, which we are not allowed to do [according to traditional initiation rites].
“He hits us with fists and slaps us.
“We pay R200 for text books and stationery yet we can never print anything from the machine as there is never any paper or ink.”
Fellow learner Anitha Mkhechane, 16, says their teachers beat them with sticks on their forearms.
“We are verbally abused by both the principal and the teachers,” the teen tells the Daily Voice.
“When we arrive late at school, the teachers at the gate would tell us if there were penises hanging on the gate, then we would come running.
“The teachers also hit us when we come to school late.
“We stand at the gate and miss out on four periods and still get beaten.
“On Wednesday, the Grade 9 and 10 learners were kicked out of school and they just expected us to come in to write tests [yesterday].”
The learners say they were told to pay an initial R100 for textbooks and later informed an extra R100 was required for a computer room they claim to not have access to.
The angry group stood outside the department’s building singing and chanting how they want the principal gone.
They also demanded their money back.
Scores of pupils avoiding the scorching heat took shelter under tiny palm trees.
They also marched up and down on the busy AZ Berman Drive, causing havoc with the passing vehicles. - Daily Voice