Chronicle Editor
Mbuso Ndlovu
It is most likely that those people who considered doing away with single-sex high schools in Bulawayo never attended such schools. What makes the city so unique that such a declaration could be imposed only on it?
By far the biggest city in the country, Harare, has the largest number of single-sex primary and secondary schools but they do not have school thugs masquerading as pupils going around fighting all over the city centre and suburbs.
Avoiding to grab the bull by the horns, we come up with excuses for our kids’ waywardness. In the low density suburbs, we say the children fight over girls from girls’ schools and in our high density suburbs where we don’t have single-sex schools, we say the fights are drug fuelled.
Are we not looking for easy explanations and running away from the real issues?
The elephant in the room, let’s face it, are the parents who have over time chosen to let children lead instead of being led.
The law does not allow anyone to beat the children, whether parents, teachers or police. The law applies to the whole country so we can’t blame that for the wild behaviour of some of our children.
The majority of boys in the schools are well behaved and are not part of the gangs so we can’t generalise that our sons have gone berserk over girls and drugs.
Or have we forgotten the school boys’ terrorists of the 90s with terrifying names like Terror Ten and Star Force. Those hoodlums were allowed to ride roughshod over everyone young and old. Pupils in the city felt safe only when they were at home as the thugs terrorised even teachers.
As expected, the boys grew into tough criminals with heinous murder and rape allegations sending most of them to jail or South Africa. Is that what we want for our children?
Children must be put in their place, not treated with the aptly named kids’ gloves.
A teacher at Montrose Girls’ High (name withheld) believes the situation worsened when children, both at home and school, were told they can’t be beaten as a disciplinary measure.
She urges the authorities to bring back the cane especially for serious misdemeanour’s. That appears to be a popular opinion with many adults who “were beaten and turned out to be successful hardworking responsible adults” who could easily have gone off the rails without the whip.
Gweru, Harare, Mutare have single sex schools but they do not have our problem. In Harare, for instance, almost all low density suburbs Government high schools are single-sex schools, just like in Bulawayo where Northlea and Founders were the only ones with both sexes before Hamilton recently co-opted girls.
Harare has, among others, Girls High, Ellis Robbins, Chisipite, Cranborne, Churchill, Allan Wilson, Hatfield, Mabelreign, Morgan, Moffat, Oriel Boys, Oriel Girls, Roosevelt, Prince Edward and Queen Elizabeth as single-sex schools.
With so many such schools surely the sex-crazed pupils could have overrun the northern half of the capital anytime.
Harare is battling the country’s biggest drug menace ever but there are no street battles involving school kids.
So what is it that we are missing in Bulawayo? There is a need to get to the bottom of this issue of youth delinquency among us. As parents, we can’t surrender our responsibilities by merely attributing the misbehaviour of our children to craving for female presence in schools.
How does that explain the involvement of Founders, Hamilton and Bulawayo Adventist School children in the stupid squabbles since they already admit both boys and girls? Do we pay fees for courtships and how come it involves day scholars only yet they meet lots of girls on the streets after school?
The fights started with Gifford and Milton schools and we need to establish when they actually began and what the source was. The two pupils who started the fights whether in the 70s, 80s or 90s can be traced to explain what happened. Surely somebody somewhere knows who started the fights.
Today, when a new pupil is admitted to these schools, instead of being asked what sports or subjects they love, they are told such and such a school are our enemies and you must run away from them or beat them whenever you see them. Nobody tells you why it is so.
That unknown cause is passed on from generation to generation. It is good we have not seen the girls from Townsend, Montrose and
fighting for these losers. Maybe it is because the girls call each other “ladies” and behave likewise.
In the 80s and 90s on Valentine’s Day, pupils from Gifford would visit Eveline High to deliver roses to the girls whom they regarded as sisters. Likewise, Milton High would visit Townsend and dance the afternoon away. That way, penpals were created and there were no lonely hearts at school and the teachers were able to control and monitor the situation.
Pupils always looked forward to Valentine’s as the following year the girls would visit the boys’ school in reciprocation.
There would be no gas-bags but gentlemen who called each other by surnames.
The surroundings, hostels, hall, dining room, driveways, grounds, virtually everywhere would, for that week, be kept clean, not by the staff but by the pupils themselves.
Uniforms, shoes, hair, nails, everything would be smart.
Sometimes dinner dances took place in full view of teachers and it was innocent fun. So where did we go wrong? Are the teachers aware of the schools’ traditions? We have seen school heads and teachers who have never seen a gym or swimming pool not appreciating the facilities at their disposal. Gyms have been turned into storerooms, tennis, squash and basketball courts.
Rugby, soccer, cricket, netball and handball fields could have been turned into residential stands if they had the powers. We saw our council a few years ago trying to turn Eveline High sports fields into a nightclub and Ascot racecourse into a residential area.
That is the danger of giving responsibilities to someone who does not appreciate the value of the facilities. Children have no ways to expend energy healthily.
The passionate fights on the sports fields between Gifford and Milton are gone. Northlea, Hamilton and Townsend are no longer basketball powerhouses. Eveline and Gifford drama and quiz teams are now history.
Where is the pride and passion? As Inspector Abednico Ncube, the police spokesperson said, pupils are the ambassadors of their schools, particularly when they are in school uniform. How many of the teachers and pupils can recite their school’s motto, not many. Do they even know what it stands for or it’s just some Latin mumbo-jumbo?
As for children raising themselves, that is happening everywhere. Parents left Harare, Kadoma, Rusape, Gweru for the diaspora, it is not like only Bulawayo faces that misfortune.
How are the children in Gweru and Karoi handling it? Are they fighting like savages after school? We must tell our children they are not savages and should behave like responsible humans who are not different from children in other towns.
Indeed, how come pupils from Christian Brothers College, Northlea, Dominican Convent, Girls College, Masiyephambili, Foundation, Herentals and Petra do not have time to waste on the street brawls.
In fact, these schools perform well in either sport or academics while the likes of Milton and Gifford tarnish their images throwing shoes and satchels at each other in the city centre.
It is inexplicable that nobody has been hit by a car while the boys run around the City Hall like they are sex-crazed and on drugs, climbing over palisades, parked cars and wriggling underneath kombis and buses, chasing each other through the Haddon and Sly complex in complete school uniform.
Online Reporter