TWO weeks back a government representative said removing over age pupils from schools will sort out many of the ills plaguing our education system.
I don’t recall his name and title, but does it really matter?
Anyway, he’s probably suspended by now for giving his dog a R10-billion tender to supply sanitary pads to dairy cows in the Free State.
His statement made me think, and while I agree 25-year-olds in Grade 11 is ridiculous, I don’t think removing them will solve the problems we face in schools.
Therefore, I suggest classroom hooligans should be shot.
Yes, shot!
Break any school rule and… boom!
‘Where is your project on the Importance of Personal Oral Hygiene?'(a typical Grade 11 classroom scenario).
‘Sir, the goat ate…’ – boom!
‘Okay children, quiet now.
‘Just wipe the spatter off your text books and carry on working.’
Yes, there will be hysteria initially, but children are surprisingly adaptable.
Before long nobody will even notice Henry lying face down in the back of class (the delinquents are always in the back).
Any misdemeanour must be dealt with swiftly:
Talking in class – boom!
Late for school – boom!
Ugly handwriting – boom!
Fighting – boom!
Talking back – boom, boom, boom!
Completely nuts?
Now before you accuse me of being insensitive, hear me out.
It won’t be necessary to wipe out an entire generation; a few hundred will get the message across.
They can start by gathering those pupils with pending murder charges, line them up during assembly and dispatch them, just to show the rest things are about to change.
Change is what the education system desperately needs right now.
Jokes aside – you didn’t really think I was serious, did you?!
We’re heading for a disaster because pupils have no qualms about attacking any teacher who dares correct them.
You must be completely nuts to apply for a teaching position at a high school these days.
Already education standards have been dropped and soon we won’t have any teachers in the country – at least few whose intentions stretch beyond looking up 13-year-old girls’ skirts.
But there’s zero political ability to swing things around, therefore, hopefully, government has space for many more because it’s nigh impossible to get a job in the private sector with the communication skills and work etiquette of a garden snail.
They can start with the bunch of Grade 12s from Roseville Secondary in Umzinto, who recently refused to write exams until the school creates designated smoking areas and gives them smoke breaks.
