‘Teachers made me miserable’
Schoolboy claims he is being victimised
ACHATSWORTH schoolboy says he has been denied an education for a year because a teacher victimised him.
And he says the Department of Education has not intervened as requested.
Frustrated by his predicament, Apollo Secondary School pupil Bradley Pakkiri, 17, tried to commit suicide earlier this year.
His concerned mother, Joyce Pakkiri, a single parent, says she got no help from the Department of Education or the public protector when she approached them for help.
She said they asked the department to move her son to another school offering his subjects, but nothing happened.
Bradley alleges that a teacher at Apollo refused to mark his English assignments last year, and he failed the subject.
The pupil said he accepted the failure and returned to the school to repeat Grade 10, but was treated badly by the teachers for asking the department to intervene.
“It was miserable for me back at that school because of the victimisation. The department said I should return and complete the year, and I went back in April.
“But I could not take the victimisation and so decided to stay at home until the department could put me in another school,” he said.
He said all he wanted was to get an education so that he could make something of his life.
“My dad died recently and I am the only male figure in my family. I feel useless because I’m being denied my right to an education.”
The principal of Apollo Secondary School, Selvan Moodley, told a different story.
He said Bradley had failed three important subjects – English, Afrikaans and maths – and his mother had refused to accept the results.
“We even got other teachers and subject advisers to mark his English papers, and still his marks did not change.
“The school would never refuse to accept him. Our doors are still open to him. If he had stayed at school and completed his Grade 10, he would have been in Grade 11 this year,” he said.
Moodley said it was a common problem at Chatsworth schools for parents who did not readily accept their children’s failures to resort to other measures, such as approaching the Department of Education in an attempt to discredit the institution in question.
“This matter has been discussed at a high level, where numerous department officials got involved. The public protector’s office saw no merit in the case.
“We changed his English teacher when he came back to the school last year. But he still was not satisfied,” said Moodley.
He said the school was still willing to accept Bradley if he wanted to finish the year.