Kgosi Gaborone blasts wayward students
Pini Bothoko | Thursday November 17, 2016 16:03
Addressing school heads at an ongoing conference here, Kgosi Gaborone said students continue to misbehave, riot, vandalise school property, abuse fellow students and staff, pointing to a need for a multi-faceted approach. “What worries me is that these are the very same people who at a later stage in life transform into the most dangerous criminals in the society,” he said.
“The consumption of alcohol and substance abuse has a major impact on learners and the society at large as it has resulted in negative behaviour, disrespect, low academic performance and failure to generally do well in school activities.”
Kgosi Gaborone said parents had abdicated their responsibility to control, mould and guide learners. “School-going children patronise bars, shebeens and ultimately fall prey to unscrupulous adults.
“It is of concern that in most cases, the people who are looked up to, are the very ones selling destructive stuff such as marijuana to learners,” complained Gaborone.
He added: “Substance abuse is a very expensive habit, which ultimately brings pain to the economy of the country. Rehabilitating a drug or alcohol addict comes at a very high cost and I wish the nation could know this”. The traditional leader said the use of drugs made potential nation builders lose focus, and fail to concentrate on their academic work.
Kgosi Gaborone said the majority of local schools had children, who had no respect for school leadership and who engaged in reckless rioting and other deviant actions, which was not in conformity with Setswana culture and Botho.
“The community plays a critical role in the raising of school-going children and as such the community needs to be aware that educating children is a national investment that needs to be supported by all citizens.
“The behaviour of society should be seen to be supporting learners, but it’s concerning that members of the community are instead doing the contrary.
“Some pockets of the community sleep with them and even sell them drugs,” he said.