adminAS the Townsend High School controversial auctioning of pupil’s cellphones saga rages on, Government has moved in and ordered the school to immediately recover the auctioned phones and return them to their owners.
This comes amid revelations that school authorities have continued with their policy of confiscating cellphones and threatening to auction them, with reports that the school confiscated a Form Three prefect’s cellphone and immediately demoted her on Thursday. Sources further revealed that the school’s head, Mrs Millicent Moyo might face disciplinary action for contravening the Public Finance Management Act and the Treasury Instructions Act.
In an interview with Sunday News, Bulawayo provincial education director Mr Dan Moyo confirmed that they have since instructed Mrs Moyo to recover the auctioned cellphones and give them back to the pupils.
“We have instructed them to recover those cellphones because we can never endorse such an illegal act. They have to simply give back the phones to their owners because what they did amounts to theft. As civil servants, the school authorities are governed by the law hence what they did is in clear violation of a number of laws which include the Public Finance Management Act and Treasury Instructions Act, where they were supposed to declare these items to the ministry after which they seek permission from the Finance Ministry to conduct such a sale but they ignored all this and thought they could do as they wish,” said Mr Moyo.
He said it was wrong for the school authorities to lay the blame on the School Development Council (SDC), noting that the SDC was simply there to assist the school’s functioning but the school head still remained the ultimate authority.
“The school head (Mrs Moyo) has said they had simply acted after a decision was reached by the School Development Committee but as public officials the SDC should never supersede their powers. In future school officials should really consult before reaching such decisions because these might have far reaching consequences,” said Mr Moyo.
On reports that the school head could face disciplinary proceedings, the provincial education director could neither confirm nor deny saying these were internal matters.
“I cannot really discuss such matters with the Press because we will be clearly embarrassing ourselves, which we would not want to do,” he said.
However, sources close to the proceedings said the provincial education office has since been advised to summon Mrs Moyo for a disciplinary hearing over the matter.
“The matter seems to have attracted attention from higher offices as besides instructing that the school recovers all the auctioned cellphones, Mrs Moyo also appears to have landed in hot soup and has been summoned for a disciplinary hearing over the matter. What has further irked authorities is that she has shown no signs of change as we are told that just this past week the school confiscated a number of cellphones from pupils, threatening that they will auction them unless their parents come with a fine of $50. We understand that they further demoted a Form Three prefect after she was found with a cellphone,” said the source.
Meanwhile, a senior Townsend school authority, who spoke on condition of anonymity for professional reasons, revealed that since the publication of the initial story exposing the controversial cellphone auction, teachers were now using cellphones in class.
“Our policy was such that even teachers were not allowed to have their cellphones during lessons but ever since that article came out there is complete chaos. Teachers have been caught a number of times on their phones during lessons, of which they have argued that if pupils can be allowed to use the cellphones then they also have that right. While we appreciate all the controversy that the cellphone auction caused, we have continued with the ban of the gadgets while we consult with the education office,” said the official.
The controversial auction, which was held about three weeks ago, saw parents, teachers and any local who managed to sneak into the school development committee meeting buy modern smart phones like Samsung S4s, Blackberries, Android and Nokia Windows phones for as little as $15 with the most expensive going for $20. Normally smart phones range between $100 and $300.
Online Reporter