This was revealed by committee chair Priscillah
Misihairabwi-Mushonga during a virtual meeting with the ministry’s permanent
secretary Tumisang Thabela.
She said the practice was rampant at boarding schools,
where students were without supervision because of the ongoing industrial
action.
Pictures of naked students, kissing or indulging in
pornographic acts have gone viral on social media, although the origins of the
images could not be ascertained
“We got a report yesterday (Wednesday) where the Minister
of Primary and Secondary Education, Cain Mathema, said only 29% of teachers
have gone back to school. We have also checked with stakeholders and they say
that only headmasters and maybe one teacher have gone back to school,”
Misihairabwi-Mushonga said.
“Parents have also been complaining that their children are
left unsupervised and those at boarding schools and even those at day schools
are reporting that children are engaging in sex and drugs, and other bad
behaviour because no one is supervising them. They said lack of supervision
also creates problems with enforcement of social distancing.”
Her claims were corroborated by a child rights group,
ZimChild Network, which gave government a six-day ultimatum to resolve the
teachers’ grievances or risk a countrywide students strike.
“We are giving the government six days to solve the
teachers issue, we are pleading. Failure to reply, we will protest fighting for
our right to education as well as submit our petition to the Ministry of
Education in large numbers.
“The schools are now nightclubs due to absenteeism of
teachers and we cannot live with such situations for long.
“If Soweto students marched, we will also march for our
right to education. We will follow all COVID-19 regulations and protocols
protesting heading to the Ministry of Education offices,” the students said in
apparent reference to the 1976 uprisings by black South African schoolchildren.
Last week, social media was abuzz with similar reports,
forcing some parents to withdraw their children from school.
This comes shortly after Unicef released a report
expressing concern that the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the
country’s education sector could have devastating long-term effects on the
academic growth of children.
Primary and Secondary Education deputy minister Edgar Moyo
yesterday said he was not aware of the students’ ultimatum.
“I am not aware of the ultimatum by the students as I am in
Chimanimani on other government engagements,” Moyo said.
“But the teachers are negotiating their salaries through
their unions with the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. We (Education
ministry) are only a service ministry. Our role is only to offer our services
to the students.”
Thabela challenged the MPs to cite specific schools where
students were engaging in nefarious activities.
“What I want to know is exactly which school where this is
happening so that we work with evidence. There was a comment that said at
Nyadire High School, the headmaster wrote something saying ‘please take your
children, vachamitisana (they will impregnate each other)’.
“However, the language used, for me was suspicious that it
came from a headmaster. When we sent our team to both Nyadire high and primary
schools, there was no such thing happening,” she said.
Thabela said primary schools only had Grade 7 pupils at the
moment, while secondary schools had O and A-Level final year students, hence
supervision would not be a problem given the small numbers.“We also received a
story about three other boarding schools, but these proved to be fake reports.
There was also a story about Rusununguko High School in Goromonzi and when we
went there, all teachers and pupils were there and everything went well,” she
said.
On teachers’ strike, she said the Public Service Commission
was dealing with the issue. Thabela also said that this year’s school calendar
will end on December 18.
She said the ministry was preparing materials for virtual
learning, podcasts, radio lessons and television lessons, while print material
was being prepared for rural children so that they also engage in open
learning.
She said students were ready for their final examinations
as most of them had already covered much of their syllabi by the time COVID-19
lockdown measures were introduced in March. Newsday
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