WeekendAnalysis Pupils should be depoliticised

Bullying in schools is ongoing and has taken a turn as issues pertaining to politics are now used in bullying others and due to the political situation, teachers often feel powerless to intervene, lest they are also targeted by learners.”

These words by Executive Director of the Swatini Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) and former Member of Parliament (MP) Nonhlanhla Dlamini should concern every liSwati who cares about the future of the Kingdom of Eswatini. Children are the future, aren’t they? Without a doubt, what Nonhlanhla is saying is that studies have taken a backseat in schools and pupils are being misled and polarised by people seeking to push their own political agendas. A sensitisation programme conducted by SWAGAA in 40 schools confirmed the worst; there are now pro-democracy pupils, who bully those who do not subscribe to their political views.

TARGET

From what presumably everyone has seen, this is happening in primary, secondary and high school levels. Not only do these learners bully their schoolmates, they also target teachers who try to intervene on behalf of the bullied pupils.

Talk about the tail wagging the dog! We grew up and attended school in a period where it was the pupils who feared teachers, not the other way round. Instead of going to school and being in class sitting alongside their peers in harmony listening to their teachers in pursuit of an education, there are now pupils who wake up every day to go to advance, gullibly so, the political interests of certain groups and individuals. If this situation persists, these pupils’ future is nothing but bleak.

We are emerging from an era of COVID-19, where pupils lost out on valuable time in class because schools had to close sine die as part of the global shutdown. Online learning became the option and this exposed pupils to all sorts of information on the internet. Such information included political indoctrination and social media, particularly Facebook and WhatsApp, which most of the pupils have access to, is where this teaching or brainwashing was playing itself out. It started as harmless memes that developed slowly into memes with hidden messages and later exploded into innuendo, insults, fake news, incitement and, ultimately, violence. The pupils were subjected to this propaganda and they shared it spreadingǤ among themselves ignorant of the potential danger they were

Political groups with extremist beliefs seized the opportunity to flood these pupils with all manner of information that would radicalise the learners, who today are giving their peers and teachers a tough time.

What has happened in Eswatini is what took in other countries as well, just as was seen in Germany where the COVID-19 pandemic exposed teenagers, when they were forced to stay at home, to extremism. In one instance, a Hitler meme was posted along with some other racist remarks on a school’s digital bulletin board.

Memes are considered just one social media tool in the toolbox media-savvy extremist groups use. With ‘lighter content’ they’re extending their digital reach from the dark corners of the web to popular channels like YouTube, Instagram and gaming platforms.

Lisa Kiefer, the head of a project called CleaRTeaching, which launched in 2016 to help stop teens in Germany from becoming radicalised, said posting an offensive, or in this case,

EXPOSED

potentially illegal meme, did not necessarily spell radicalisation, it did, however, point to a disturbing trend among the underage population:

They were now more likely to share extremist content, in many cases unknowingly. It is not uncommon for students to share videos and other content that to them ‘seems completely harmless’, but it becomes a bigger problem when you know what’s actually behind it, and there’s a lot of that going around, said Kiefer. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing German teens to stay home, it became less likely teachers would catch wind of problematic content like the Hitler meme making its rounds among students at school.

VULNERABLE

And without the teachers’ support, some students became even more vulnerable to extremist groups online. That’s what happened even in Eswatini.

When the schools reopened, the country’s political unrest soon got into motion and it found pupils vulnerably ripe for use by the cunning political groups and individuals. Teachers were caught off guard. Some of the pupils were targeted for extremist ideological training so they would come back and spread such thinking among their peers.

It was not long before a string of unprecedentedly violent conduct was displayed by pupils in various schools across the country.

From the looting of shops during the height of the unrest, to the burning of classrooms and police posts, the pupils were at the forefront. Even pupils at primary schools, some as young as below the age of 10, were seen and heard singing politically-motivated songs as they boycotted classes. They even made demands of a political nature, such as ‘we want democracy now!’ and ‘free our jailed MPs’ which they displayed on placards. Teachers who tried to control the pupils were either threatened or subjected to violence, and they were left with no option except to get out of the way of the out-of-control learners.

Parents also failed, and are still failing, to bring the children under the control. One can only wonder; what has become of this country?

The political groups and individuals behind the radicalisation of these pupils have been their greatest and loudest cheerleaders. Some of these pupils have dropped out of school as they have been made to believe that they will only go back to a better education ‘after we get democracy’.

It is all a lie! They have been made pawns in a political game.

Pity the youngsters have fallen for this deceit. Their education is gone, never to be revived. Their adulthood will be one filled with challenges rooted in the lack of education.

TRANSITION

A UNICEF Schools For Africa annual report 2021 spells out that for adolescents to successfully transition into adulthood, schools must help them prepare for what lies ahead in life and work, including issues related to health, safety, and nutrition.

Yet, the report continues, it can be very difficult for adolescents who have dropped out of formal education to come back into the school system or find alternative ways to learn.

The pupils who have dropped out of school, therefore, to pursue the political agenda and those who are manipulating them, have zero chance of going back to class, even ‘after we get democracy’.

UNICEF says it works specifically with adolescents, who are out of school for various reasons, helping them find alternative pathways to learning or (where appropriate) to return to formal education. The report states:

“Adolescent girls can particular problems in face relation to education, and for this reason, UNICEF works to ensure that schools provide facilities for menstrual hygiene and gender-segregated washrooms. The organisation also works to protect girls against early pregnancies or the pressure to marry before the age of 18. More generally, UNICEF works to counter the harmful attitudes that continue to exist in some African countries, with less importance being given to the education of adolescent girls than that of boys.”

It is clear that girls who have dropped out of schools after being politicised will face even bigger challenges than their male peers because they might fall victim to the problems outlined by the UNICEF report.

Many children in African countries, the report goes on, faced serious humanitarian crises in 2021, exacerbated by the impact of the pandemic as well as climate shocks and conflicts.

In responding to these challenges, UNICEF says it has been able to draw on its long experience to ensure that children are able to keep learning even under the most difficult circumstances.

ASSISTANCE

“Education is critical in times of crisis, and UNICEF responds quickly to restore a sense of normality in children’s lives, aiming to provide continuity in education. In many countries in Africa, UNICEF is the lead agency for the Education in Emergency sector,” the report says.

If anyone from UNICEF is reading this, may they respond pronto to the challenges presented by the politicisation of pupils in Eswatini’s schools. With the assistance and cooperation of state and non-state actors, may they save Eswatini’s children.

Need I point out that children of those individuals who are politicizing the pupils are not enrolled in the public schools whose operations they have disrupted. Theirs are in private schools and getting muchva luable education. Some of these individuals are even themselves pursuing education in esteemed universities abroad while they encourage pupils in local public schools to abandon classes until ‘we get democracy’. Hypocrites! Pupils should never be pawns to be used by political activists to score points against whoever they are fighting.