DESPITE the criticism, Ikhandlela Secondary School Principal Nombuso Mngadi has defended her school’s policy to lock out pupils who arrive late.
Last week irate community members raised their concerns about the school’s conduct of ‘keeping learners out of action’.
‘We were shocked to see scores of pupils loitering around outside the school’s gate after being locked out by teachers.
‘The reason for this, we were told, was because the pupils did not arrive at school on time,’ said one angry parent.
‘But we are concerned about the high number of pupils involved. The attitude of some teacher is equally worrisome.
‘When we questioned the lockout rule, a teacher asked what positions we held in the community to interfere in the affairs of the school.
‘One does not need to be a prominent leader in the community to show an interest in the education of our children. We have every right to stand up and fight for the education of our children as concerned parents and citizens of this country,’ said the parent.
Disciplinary measures
Principal Mngadi, however, said there was nothing wrong with the lockout policy.
‘We are doing this as a form of instilling discipline in as far as the issue of late arrival is concerned. The school’s operating hours are from 7.30am to 2.30pm, but for some reason some learners decide to arrive only at 8am.
‘We have been understanding, because the gate is closed at 7.50am to accommodate latecomers. Anyone arriving at the school at 08:00 will be locked out.
‘If learners arrive late for the first time, we write down their names. If this occurs three times in a row, we then write letters to the parents explaining to them that their children are losing out. We cannot tolerate nonsense.’
Mngadi described her school as an institution that strives to produce self-disciplined, responsible, literate, hard-working pupils.
‘Without discipline we would not have scored 87% (pass rate) in our very first matric class last year when we had 207 candidates. Of those, 81 obtain degree qualification, 64 diplomas and 28 higher certificate passes. Only 30 failed,’ she said.
uThungulu District Director for the Department of Education David Chonco said it was in order for the school to close the gates to deal with latecomers.
