Owing pupils sent home

PIGG’S PEAK – After missing out on several months of learning due to the outbreak of COVID-19, a number of pupils at Buhleni Secondary School were sent home for non-payment of school fees.

Buhleni Secondary School is situated around Buhleni and had classes up to Form IV.

It has about 150 pupils but according to some parents, only about 29 remained in school on Monday when some were sent back home.

They were allegedly sent home for not paying either school fees or the building fund fee.

Some of the pupils are said to have been pulled out of the classrooms while writing tests and ordered to go home to collect the owed fees.

Parents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this was unfair to the pupils because they were not given an opportunity to pay the fees in instalments.

Struggling

A parent who spoke on condition of anonymity said her children were also sent away and that her plea to pay part of the money fell on deaf ears.

“Where will I get all the money at once?” she asked.

She said the school wanted over E5 000 to be paid at once yet many parents were struggling to support their families.

Other parents said even pupils who were in Form III were also sent home to collect school fees.

They said during a recent meeting, parents tried to negotiate with the school’s head teacher as well as the chairperson and requested that they be allowed to pay in instalments.

It was alleged that during the same meeting, there was an official who jestingly advised parents to go and work as dagga trimmers but this angered some of them.

Trimming dagga or manicuring is a very lucrative industry and people earn as much as E100 per day or more depending on how fast they worked.

In some places, it happens that a family of seven can all work in the dagga fields and earn a total of E700 per day as even children are allowed to work.

The official who is said to have been from one of the government ministries is said to have advised the parents that they could generate enough to pay the school fees.

A parent who asked not to be mentioned said they felt offended because one could be killed for dagga possession.

“It is a dangerous field,” said the parent.

She said the children were now missing out on lessons because they were at home while others continued to learn.

Approached

The head teacher’s phone was called but it rang unanswered.

Parents also said some of their colleagues had approached the Hhohho Regional Education Officer (REO) Thuli Langwenya for intervention.

Langwenya when reached said she could not respond because she was in a meeting at the time.

Meanwhile, teachers appeared divided on the school’s action to send pupils who had not paid school fees home.

Some of the teachers who spoke on condition of anonymity said it did not make sense to be in classes with only a few pupils.

“How can you teach when the majority of the pupils are at home?” asked a teacher.

Another revealed that some of them had tried to reason with the school’s administration.

Other teachers are also said to have abandoned lessons.