Schools dangerous as students unleash teacher violence

FRANCISTOWN: The Moshupa incident went viral on social media. Although there are no readily available figures, the Botswana Sectors for Educators Union (BOSETU) says the overall safety of teachers in schools has been waning significantly over the years. One of the recent instances of violence against teachers happened at Madiba Senior Secondary School and Mmadinare Senior Secondary School.

In a nutshell, the learning environment in public schools has for sometime been characterised by violent attacks on teachers by students in schools. For example, a teacher escaped death by a whisker in 2011 at Mmei Junior Secondary School after he was brutally stabbed with a sharp instrument by three learners. In October 2011, an 18-year-old student at Swaneng Hill Senior Secondary School stabbed a teacher with a knife on the hand after an altercation in the storeroom.  The infuriated student is said to have demanded that the teacher give him back his “Beanie” which the teacher had confiscated.