She said the ministry has issued a reminder to all schools after realising that some teachers go beyond the corporal punishment standards set in the Education Act. She said there have been instances where students have stabbed, assaulted, sodomised schoolmates or assaulted teachers. "These are all actions that are not allowed in the school premises nor even at our homes. What is not condoned at home will not be condoned in school," she said. She stated that there is proof of intentional vandalism in schools.

The Education Minister said that the first step she took when she was appointed was to inform teachers not to assault students when administering corporal punishment.

"Teachers do not deal with abuse of students. Someone might ask that are teachers not retaliating for the abuse they are facing from the students? My answer to that will be that teachers must have a psychological retreat to talk and lead by example without letting their emotions take the best of them," she said.

She said no teacher is justified to assault a student. "Our responsibility is to try and fix minds that are at mischief. I have shown concern that I am not comfortable with students who are expelled from school to be released into the society without being given any help. That is why we are talking to parallel ministries, like Local Government and the Sports Youth and Culture so that such students can be referred to institutions within these ministries to assist them before we take them back to schools," she said.

On sponsorships, Venson-Moitoi said that the days of letting students apply to institutions of their choice with the Ministry of Education paying the fees on the basis of admission are coming to an end. "We have always been paying where the students have been admitted. I have always questioned this and that as long as the students tell us where they want to go, we cannot control the costs and these institutions are not cheap," she said.

She explained that they will confine the applications to specific fields and universities. "We will possibly not do that in 2010 because some students have already been made offers in institutions. We are planning full implementation in 2011," she said.

She added that the priority will be to renovate the school infrastructure and to retrain the teachers with Primary Teachers Certificate. She said she will give it her best shot and the public should judge her performance in two years time. "I never promise things until I have answers to everything I want to do. I am trying to find my feet in the ministry. I will give it the best I can. Unfortunately measurement is not instant and it is not easy to set standards," she said.