We should not hold education hostage to meet demands
Is this what our education system has come to?
Teargas, rubber bullets, police, an angry mob and stones hurled at a bus transporting children!
Is this what our education system has come to? It seems as if we have entered a time warp and we’re back to the old days. Have we not moved forward?
The parents of pupils attending Roodepoort Primary want the principal and deputies to be removed. According to the parents, they were elected without proper procedure being followed and that they are guilty of corruption and racism. Even when the school’s leadership was cleared of all allegations, parents refused to accept, demanding that they be removed from the school.
It is sad that these parents have taken to violent protests as such – and that their children are caught in the middle of it. Is this the way we resolve matters? What are we teaching our children!
With structures like the school governing body and the school’s management system, these issues should have been resolved in a dignified manner. But these structures were dissolved and it became a finger-pointing activity which led to continued disruptions ending in MEC Lesufi closing down the school. Further to that, there are racial tensions and allegations of threats.
When violence becomes a possible solution, at a school, then one realises that we have stooped too far down. Watching the video footage and reading the reports, one can only wonder about the poor children who have to witness this violent struggle all in the name of education.
Please people, can we just think about the children first? Let’s set the right example.
