Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) Secretary General Raymond Majongwe says the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Torerai Moyo is “offside” after he said corporal punishment is outlawed in schools.
Speaking during a Teachers Day commemoration in Kwekwe recently, Majongwe said Zimbabwe’s education has fallen apart due to the prohibition of corporal punishment in schools. NewZimbabwe.com quoted Majongwe as saying:
As long as we remove corporal punishment from the classroom, from the school, you have destroyed our education.
It’s a tragedy that the Minister of Education who is barely three weeks in office and is still a virgin in the ministry is now saying corporal punishment is an offence, Minister you are offside.
The President is saying we must discipline these children not for the sake of it, but because he is seeing the collateral damage which is happening in schools.
Majongwe warned that schools are now havens of indiscipline as learners freely consume drugs and engage in sexual orgies.
He said parents and guardians who support the removal of corporal punishment in schools do not care about the future of the country. Said Majongwe:
Before you address issues of challenges faced by teachers you are already attacking teachers.
Those people who are in support of this know these kids are already damaged goods or they don’t care about the future of the country.
If you go to any school in Harare now, we have learners who are already high on drugs.
We have learners who are partaking in sex sessions in schools and you want us to accept that, that is totally unacceptable.
As teachers, we have a role to make sure that we build the country, morally and socially.
In March this year, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said that corporal punishment must be allowed to instill discipline in children.
He said the younger generation was misbehaving hence the need to “slap” them to order. Speaking at the official opening of the national chiefs’ conference in Bulawayo, Mnangagwa said:
We’re here today we owe it to our forefathers who preserved our culture, our way of life that has allowed us to survive to date.
So it is critically important for us the current leaders to carry this philosophy and respect traditional knowledge, wisdom and culture to preserve our identity.
We’re fighting drug abuse because drug abuse by our young generation will destroy our culture and identity.
Foreign countries will take advantage of us because we’ll have destroyed our identity.
This philosophy that children are not reprimanded at home or counselled at home does not work for us.
Look at America, if a child is beaten, they go and report it. Rovai mbama vati tasa (slap them to straighten them up).
The High Court ruled that corporal punishment is permissible if it can be proved that the intention was to discipline.
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