In yesterday’s edition, we carried a story revealing how students in some boarding schools sleep on the floor due to acute shortage of beds and mattresses. The report focused on three schools in the Mmathethe/Molapowabojwang constituency - Mmathethe Junior Secondary School (JSS), Ntwalwang JSS in Digawana and Mogale JSS in Maokane. The situation there has been going on for a year now, and the political leadership is aware of it. Consequently, students at these institutions, especially male learners, share beds while some sprawl on the floor at night. It is an unacceptable condition in which these learners live with. Furthermore, it is not conducive for learning at all. Lack of proper rest by being squeezed into a tiny bed has the potential to interfere with learners’ concentration levels leading to disrupted attention spans. While school management attributes this state of affairs to vandalism, it is disturbing that the area Member of Parliament, Alfred Madigele is on record saying the shortage is due to the boys using the foam mattresses in the loo as a last resort whenever they run out of toilet paper.
There is an element of vandalism, we agree. However, above all else there is negligence on the part of the school management, boarding masters, parents and whoever is responsible for ensuring that the students have their basic needs met. Provision of toiletry should be elementary, especially at a time when it is unnecessary for students to be burdened while their rudimentary needs are being overlooked. We understand boarding students are provided with toilet paper; one roll per student monthly by boarding custodians, but it is also evident that one is not enough. For students to resort to using mattress foam, as a utility in the toilet must mean they really are in great need.
