Minister you are offside! – teachers say after Moyo denounces corporal punishment in schools
Minister you are offside! – teachers say after Moyo denounces corporal punishment in schools
Teachers have rebuked Primary and Secondary Education Minister Torerai Moyo after he slammed corporal punishment in schools.
Speaking during a Teachers Day commemoration in Kwekwe recently, Secretary General of Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) Raymond Majongwe said there is a need to enforce discipline in schools by administering corporal punishment.
“As long as we remove corporal punishment from the classroom, from the school, you have destroyed our education,” he said.
Majongwe described recent utterances by Moyo condemning corporal punishment as tragic.
“It’s a tragedy that the Minister of Education who is barely three weeks in office who 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,” he said.
Majongwe said parents who support the removal of corporal punishment in schools do not care about the country’s future.
“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,” he said.
The trade unionist added that schools are now hotbeds of indiscipline.
“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.”
Moyo said he wants to create a conducive environment for learners and has since established a task force of at least 250 officials from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to handle cases of misconduct in schools which includes corporal punishment.
