A TEENAGE boy had to drop out of school after “incessant’” bullying from fellow pupils for “no reason”, he says.
The former Form Two student at a school in Epworth, near the capital Harare, was picked on by other bigger boys for being too showy and being a sissy.
The last straw, alleges the 15-year-old, was when one of the bully boys displaced him from his usual desk one morning and the teacher ignored his report.
The teacher denies ever receiving such a claim and says he does not remember receiving report.
In another incident last week at a different government school in the same neighbourhood, junior secondary school students were involved in a fight outside the school gates.
“How can teachers just ignore chaos and commotion a few metres from the school yard?” asks John Banda, an airtime vendor at a roadside shop nearby, who witnessed the fracas.
“Personally, I wouldn’t think that happening to my kids – it’s stressing. Schools must be safe spaces for the children,” he says.
The ministry of primary and secondary education (MOPSE) , while acknowledging such bullying and misconduct ,m says they have a fully-fledged department of learner welfare, psychological services and special needs that looks at and deals with, and investigates, without fear or favour, any cases of bullying in our schools”.
Taungana Blessing Ndoro, director of communications and advocacy at the MOPSE head office, says their institutions have got systems to tackle such cases professionally.
“Our competency-based curriculum has very robust guidance and counselling learning activities to tackle bullying,” he told The Afronews in email responses to the growing reports of bullying.
But some parents and organisations are not convinced these “systems” are effective and are calling on school authorities to be more actively involved, with some even calling for the re-introduction of corporal punishment on irrant pupils.
“Teachers are failing to whip the kids into line as some are going astray,” says Anna Mutizwa, who has two primary school boys ages nine and 12.
“Teachers are loco parentis and but it seems they are neglecting this aspect.”
She even gave reference to a heart-rending video – that went viral – of students at a mission school tormenting another youngster for not wearing a mask in these times of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Educationist Tapera Chikandiwa says authorities must not abdicate their duties.
“Bullying must not be tolerated and authorities should investigate these allegations and reports from pupils,” he says.
But one teacher deflects the blame to parents themselves, accusing them of failing to instill family and cultural values onto their children.
“Family values of respect, of friendship and of good neighborliness – where have these gone to?” he asks. “Even the language some of the children are using,” he says “is uncomfortable. The home environment is critical in shaping the children’s behaviour.”
But Ndoro says as a policy, every school is supposed to have an anti-bullying policy and “every parent and learner is aware of the procedures to take if they became victims of bullying or if they witness incidents of bullying.
“Levels of bullying vary at both primary and secondary levels but our ministry has got the scourge under control.”
