Chronicle Editor
THE Government has had fights with many school authorities at the beginning of every school term.
Most of the time when schools open, heads send away children whose parents would not have paid school fees for them. When this happens, parents and their children complain, arguing that the challenging economic environment made it difficult for them to timeously pay school fees. They appeal to the Government to intervene. Religiously, the Government intervenes on the side of the parents saying sending their children away affects the academic progression of the kids and that the contract that got the concerned children in school was between the parent and the institution, not the institution and the kid. Therefore, failure by the parent to discharge his or her obligations in terms of their contract with the school was a dispute between the two and must not victimise the child. The Government would frequently threaten to punish the schools in question but the heads always ignored the threats, knowing full well that the threats lacked legal backing thus could not be executed.
However, the Education Amendment Act that was gazetted on Friday now gives the legal backing that must ensure that children have access to education.
In terms of that law, all State schools can no longer exclude a child from school for non-payment of school fees.
This is a very progressive amendment that will ensure that children attending State schools have uninterrupted access to education even if their parents or guardians are resource-poor and unable to pay school fees for their wards on time.
Amid the prevailing economic challenges, not many parents and guardians have enough money to be always on time in terms of paying fees for their children. Life is difficult for most people, especially for those who have no resources to send their children to costlier private schools, thus have to enroll them at Government schools that are cheaper. Such parents and their children need the protection of the law, which was lacking all along but is now in place.
We foresee more and more children in school from now on, their future secure.
This piece of legislation, while progressive and good in ensuring that no child is excluded from school, must, however, not be taken as an excuse by parents and guardians to stop working hard to raise and pay fees for their wards as and when they fall due. They need know that for schools to function properly and be able to deliver quality education to their kids, they need resources and those resources come from the money parents pay as school fees and the various applicable levies.
Also contained in the new law is a clause that school authorities cannot exclude girls who fall pregnant from attending lessons. Like the clause on school fees, this one is progressive too and will contribute to the attainment of the national goal of making sure that all children who must be in school are in school. In most cases schoolgirls fall pregnant by mistake, not because of recklessness on their part. In most cases, they would be extremely regretful of the result of their mistake, sometimes to the point of considering suicide or illegally terminating the pregnancy. As a result, the early pregnancy would be a massive burden — literally and figuratively — on them to carry. Excluding them from school because of that burden adds yet another burden on them that has potential to cause lifelong adverse impacts on their lives and the children they will deliver.
Having said this, just like our advice to parents on the issue of payment of school fees for their children, we want to hammer this point into the minds of schoolgirls that sex is never enjoyable when they have it when they are in school; it is more enjoyable when they are old enough to experience it and old enough to live with the possible adverse consequences of it.
We reiterate that schoolchildren must just shun sex when they are still that young. It is not for them yet, but for adults. They must make books their best friends, study, pass, and secure good jobs after which they can consider engaging in sex.
Online Reporter