EDITORIAL COMMENT: Violent protests have no place at schools

A violent demonstration by students at Mutambara High in Chimanimani last Sunday night, which resulted in destruction of property, is worrisome considering its negative implication on efforts to create a stable atmosphere for learning.
A good school has a blend of attributes, one of them being a pleasant learning environment. The physical and social atmosphere in the learning place must be good.

Teachers and students, among other stakeholders, are an important part of this environment in an education setting since a stable learning environment plays a role in creating a happy learning atmosphere, improves students’ active participation and effectiveness of teaching.

We condemn the violent disturbances at Mutambara High because they defeat the whole purpose of sending a child to a boarding school.

Parents are struggling and paying fees through the nose sending children to boarding school to ensure that they have adequate time to pursue academic studies without disturbances associated with family backgrounds.

They expect their children to be better prepared for academic rigours and social challenges of college learning by learning and living together in secondary school.

They expect their children to undergo an intense inculcation of self-discipline and leadership, important skills that should be developed at boarding schools and last a life time.

However, what we are witnessing at Mutambara does not resonate with this as students are seemingly being moulded into anarchists capable of turning the whole institution into an arena of rage.

What hurts most is the fact that the disturbances that resulted in the girls’ dormitory block, dining hall and a car windscreen being smashed, gates damaged, were institutionally tailored and could have been avoided had the school made it its policy to ban entertainment, never mind the ongoing World Cup matches, during the peak evening study hours right up to midnight.

We wonder how the school came up with such an ill-conceived decision allowing the students to forgo study time for entertainment.

The decision was as terrible as its backfiring consequences. Considering that World Cup games kick off at 6pm and run to 12am, was it academically and morally correct for the school authorities to prioritise entertainment at the expense of daily study schedules?

We also query the wisdom that informed the school authorities to settle for the library as a location for watching the soccer matches when by nature it should be a venue for studies.

How do they explain it to the parents now that the demonstration was a direct reaction by the students against the banning of the screening of the match between Netherlands and Mexico after some students insisted on using the facility for studies while others wanted to watch the game? While we condemn the attacks and it is our wish that appropriate corrective action be taken, not only to punish the offending students, we feel the school authorities must face the music and be held accountable for the disturbances that have rocked this school.

Such an arrangement and the manner in which the ban of the games was handled is mind-boggling and police should handle the criminal aspect of the demonstration, as well as allegations of abuse raised by the students.

Students at Mutambara High should be more concerned about burning the midnight oil, prioritising education for future survival and success, while authorities must make the education of these children their primary aim.

A Mutambara High without discipline cannot be distinguished from a street. Discipline is a factor in creating the learning environment at a school. Discipline is not only related to academic success, but also makes a child less likely to have problem behaviour that can interfere with school performance.

Only a clean, violent-free and interesting environment stimulates the child’s mind and helps in its cognitive development.

It is our appeal that teachers, the school board and parents take immediate steps for the prevention of such types of unrest and provide a calm, happy and behaviourally hygienic environment for the children to ensure more success and less violence.