Kalamare Looks To ZCC To Save Pupils

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Monday June 28, 2010 00:00

 

In another case, Boitumelo Keitumetse, whose daughter Kamogelo is in Standard 6, and was a habitual victim in January and February, says some pupils had 'provoked her'.

'My daughter used to faint and collapse a lot only to say that someone had provoked her,' Keitumetse says. Fear continues to grip this small village where the quest for an educated and informed nation has been overtaken by mystery and misery. These pupils' eyes are sad. They wear fearful faces, except maybe for the very young in Standard One, who make their way home around 13:00. They walk freely in clusters of six and fives and they find time to play their cheerful children's games.  A visit to the school staff room, where the headmaster and deputy head are housed, also tells the same story.

These are team leaders in distraught. They have every reason to be because the classroom has turned into a torture room for the young victims.

The parents are equally distressed. They are worried whether these learners' academic lives will be as bright as they had wished. Mmamane Monnaosele, who says her grandchild Shima died two days after he collapsed at school, is worried about these pupils' academic performance.

'Only a month ago Shima had the power of education before his hands to help him break all odds in life, but now the source in which he was to drink from cut his days short,' she says. He was a Standard Five pupil.  Though Monnaosele's other grandchildren still go to Kalamare Primary School, she says she believes their results will be adversely affected by the prevailing situation. 'Their learning is very much affected, mostly they collapse and gain consciousness after a long time. Besides, fear can instil failure and they are fearful,' she says. While a number of parents have resorted to keeping their children away from school, others being transferred, Monnaosele says there is nowhere to take her grandchildren. 'Who knows, maybe they are going to carry that thing with them,' she says. However, those who have had their children transferred say they no longer faint or collapse where they are now schooling.

Requesting the actual figures of those that have been transferred and dropouts, the headmaster referred The Monitor to the principal education officer, Kenneth Habana, who had earlier confirmed that there are transfers out of the school. Though he discloses that it is a concern that pupils were being transferred out of a school within their reach and that could possibly lead to them having to commute a long distance to reach the classroom wherever they are taken to, and that they could also face non-conducive learning environments, he said he was too busy to divulge figures. 'I will assign someone to look into the figures and they will avail the information,' he had said. ' I don't want to get into trouble, here in this village, we don't talk. We can't suggest what might solve the problem as the chiefs' word is final,' a woman who prefers anonymity says.  Kgosi Goareng Mosinyi declined to comment.