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Ushehwedu Kufakurinani
I am rarely moved by things that happen around me: the zvihuta frenzy, bond notes, #ThisFlag campaign, what have you.
This is not a commentary on these issues but more of me.
At best I would describe myself as generally apathetic, preferring to deal with the here and now of survival in this challenged economy. Many in this country may identify with this attitude but this does not necessarily make it the ideal.
I was, however, moved by the news I received that students learning at Mkaro Girls College in Gutu had been ejected from their school on May 24, 2016 without notice or consultation to parents or guardians. The decision was impulsive, imprudent, ill-advised and retrogressive.
The Catholic education administrators responsible for the decision include Walter Nyatsanza, one Zindova and the priest-in-charge of Mkaro Mission, Cleopas Magundani.
The reason for the closure of the school read: “Mukaro High School has been officially closed until further notice due to the suspected misbehaviour of Mr M. Matenhere and Mr M. Chirikure.”
This was signed by Nyatsanza.
Yes, I know you are wondering what kind of misbehavior is being attributed to these teachers. And yes, your first guess was mine too: the teachers must have committed sexual crimes towards the girls, so I thought.
I quickly dismissed that guess because if that were the case, it is the teachers – not the students – who should leave the school.
Could the teachers be responsible for some Satanism or devilish act whose exorcism would require the closure of the school?
The latter actually seems more possible.
But alas! The teachers were, in fact, accused of having instigated a strike by students that took place on June 7, 2012. Yes, that long back!
This, to me, is a typical case of one burning a whole house to kill a snake – in this case, an entire school. The students suffer because the administrators have lost a case against Matenhere and Chirikure and if they cannot get these two off Mkaro institution, then they would rather have the students leaving. Shocked?
Let me get you to the facts.
The 2012 June strike by students took the Mkaro administration in particular and the Catholic education offices by storm. It was well organised and co-ordinated. Just as an aside – it also brings back memories of my times as a head-boy in one mission school when I, too, led Form 3s to 6 on a protest against poor food. Ours was simply to avoid the dining hall – and, of course, we got into trouble for that.
And things did change after.
Back to Mkaro, theirs was probably one that should go down into the lane of the history of student protests. Six hundred girls (literally the whole school – only the sick were left in lockers in the rooms) woke up in the wee hours of the morning and walked over 15km to Gutu-Mpandawana education offices to express genuine grievances over poor food, management, accommodation, lack of water and bad sanitary conditions.
The response by the administration was to fire the then deputy head, Sister Beatre Magadzi in October 2012. In February 2013 the church then began to implicate Matenhere and Chirikure for allegedly instigating the strike. The church tried to get them transferred and proceeded to withdraw the payment of incentives to the duo.
The two teachers took the Catholic administration to court for harassment and the former were ordered to stop harrassing the teachers and re-instate their incentives.
It is alleged that the Catholic education administrators then forced the headmaster to charge the duo in December 2014 and a hearing was conducted in January 2015 and the determination which came in July 2015 did not find the two guilty. This year in January, the church picked up the issue again ordering that the two be skipped in the allocation of teaching classes and be evicted.
Again the church administrators were taken to court and they lost the case. In spite of their loss, the church proceeded to put metal bars on the teachers’ doors to bar them from entering. The teachers took recourse to the police who gave an order to have the doors opened or else face arrest. It seems having been blocked on all ends, Catholic education administrators then made the resolution to close the school “until further notice”.
I would want to end here with all the facts now in place, but I would not have done justice. I need to say more to explain why I think this decision was not only immature but also impulsive, foolish and retrogressive.
First, the actions by the administrators are based on the figment of their imagination. They failed to produce an iota of incriminating evidence against Matenhere and Chirikure even before the courts of law and yet still continued to act and harass these two in defiance of court orders. No one is above the law.
Not even the Pope or his servants!
Second, the innocent kids have been inconvenienced – almost punishing them for the actions they did in 2012, and for those some who were not yet on the institution – for nothing.
The kids are put under unimaginable stress and strain moving from one place to another and being disrupted in the midst of classes. The committed parents/guardians who have been faithfully paying their hard-earned fees are unnecessarily inconvenienced.
Would these parents/guardians be refunded pro rata taking into account the days that the students will be away from school “until further notice?” The school hired buses to ferry children to their nearest cities? Whose money was used? Is this why fees have been hiked time and again? And for those who live further away from the major towns, who catered for their expenses and other logistics?
Why are these Catholic mission schools allowed independence when they are reckless with their responsibilities? If they want to have total say on the hiring and firing of their staff it is high time they started paying their own teaching staff.
Under our economic circumstances, this will surely be welcomed by Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa.
The writer is a senior lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and writes in his personal capacity
Online Reporter