Elite school defies Government

Herald Reporter

THE row over last month’s expulsion of a 14-year-old learner from Harare’s St John’s College has taken a new twist .

The school is resisting an order from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education for it to re-enrol the boy on the basis that the private school did not handle the matter in terms of procedures outlined in the Government’s P35 circular that lays down how a disciplinary expulsion must be treated.

The learner was expelled from one of the country’s most elite private boys’ schools after he lent a mobile phone to a classmate and his girlfriend from another school, to take inappropriate pictures which showed the juveniles in close contact at a pizzeria.

The boy’s aggrieved parents challenged the expulsion as they felt the punishment was too harsh for what they deemed to be a misdemeanour, especially considering that their son was not himself appearing in the photographs.

Another point of contention was that the learner was expelled without the convening of a disciplinary hearing.

When the parents sought to engage the school for a review of the case, St John’s said the matter had been referred to the Ministry for determination of the boy’s fate.

The school declined to engage the parents directly and appointed Gill, Godlonton and Gerrans to act on its behalf while the parents in turn engaged Musengi and Sigauke Legal Practitioners.

After St John’s referred the matter to the Ministry on August 9, the officials wrote back on August 19 saying the learner had been improperly expelled as the school did not follow laid down regulations.