To spank or not to

VIDEO footage of an untrained mathematics teacher, Talent Chingwaru, uncontrollably belting and head-butting a defenceless Lower Sixth learner last week over an undisclosed issue made most Zimbabweans sad.

It was more than an insult to the teaching profession.

Parents were equally disturbed and this set social media ablaze.

To their credit, the police and courts acted fast to ensure Chingwaru was arrested and jailed for 36 months.

However, the magistrate set aside 18 months for five years on condition he does not commit a similar offence.

The remaining 18 months were suspended on condition he performs 630 hours of community service at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.

In sentencing the rampaging teacher, the magistrate said he should be given another chance to reform.

“It is fortunate that the complainant did not suffer any permanent injuries. You could have lost your job and potential employers might not want to accept you because of the publicity that was involved. Accused, you need to be given a chance to reform and you need to control your anger.”

The magistrate noted that corporal punishment was outlawed in 2014 after superior courts ruled that it was inhumane. What the teacher did was unforgivable. Forty-one years after independence we cannot have teachers behaving like a rabid pitbull in class.

Spare a thought for the parents of the child who paid fees only to have their child being used for a punching bag by an irresponsible teacher masquerading as a disciplinarian.

The case of this teacher has opened a floodgate of similar complaints.

Called “caning”, “spanking”, “correcting”, “lashing”, “kupomba”, “kukwatura” or “kumenya”, cases of learners being beaten up are not new.

As I commit pen to paper, there are a lot of teachers who are known for keeping bamboo sticks, electric cables, switches, ropes and even dusters in their drawers to beat up learners who would have messed up during their studies.

When yours truly was a teacher, he had colleagues who bragged in the staffroom that they were strict and would not stop beating up learners.

“Ini ndinozora butter. Ndinokwatura vanhu kuti vagare vakati twii sa Soroboni mugwagwa wekuBulawayo,” they would say.

A number of learners are known to run away from school because they just cannot stand the heat and frequent beatings they get from teachers.

“I would rather stay away from Mr Moyo’s class. At times he beats us up for no apparent reason. I think if he continues like this we are going to confront him or just drop his subject. It cannot be a life of being frequently beaten,” a learner told this writer.

A female learner had her own views on why teachers beat up learners.

“The way our teacher beats us up shows he is up to something. I think he wants us to fall in love with him to escape the beatings. This is wrong but we have no choice,” she said.

While learners have issues with being beaten up by their teachers, parents believe children need to be beaten to remain on the straight and narrow.

“The Bible says spare the rod and spoil the child, so these children need to be beaten to achieve better results. There should, however, be restraint in the way this is done,” said Mrs Mouray Maromo of Mbare.