Just before the Ministry of Education and Skills Development announced that it will shorten the second term school holidays, from five to two weeks, it is not certain that the unrest within schools will end even after the students return from the shortened holiday.
Already the ministry has decided to indefinitely close down about eleven schools, especially in the southern region, before the official closing date due to the continuing unrest in schools.
The Principal Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, Normsa Zuze, said, “We are not yet certain whether the unrest will continue when the students return from the school holidays.”
She said that although they had not yet calculated the amount of damage that students did, the cost of damage is estimated to be in the millions of pula.
When asked about whether they will take action against those students who participated in damaging the school property, she replied, “I am not able to respond to that as yet because it is too early to make a comment.”
She added that those schools that have been damaged will probably take time to be repaired and that will also disadvantage innocent students.
However, a press statement issued by the ministry states that in the Kgalagadi region, seven secondary schools (Matsha Senior, Motaung Junior Secondary both in Kang, Tsabong Junior Secondary, Kgolagano Junior Secondary in Middlepits, Tapologo Junior Secondary in Werda, Lehutshelo Junior in Hukintsi and Lehututu Junior Secondary in Lehututu) had been closed and students had to go on an early holiday due to riots by the students.
The statement further said the students refused to cooperate with school authorities, resulting in school property being destroyed.
The statement further cited an incident in Ghantsi where students at Itekeng Junior Secondary School were given letters by the school authorities inviting parents to a meeting.
The students were reported to have collected and then tore up the letters in front of the school authorities before they were sent home on Monday.
The Divisional Commander of the Southern Region, Senior Assistant Police Commissioner Oreeditse Mautle said following the unrest at various schools in his policing area, the police started investigating all schools that were involved in rioting.
He said they are fully aware that some of the students are under age, saying that they will be treated as juveniles while those who are above 18 years of age will have dockets opened against them and those dockets will be sent to the Directorate of Public Prosecution who will determine whether to prosecute the case or not.
“I am not in a position to suggest when we will complete our investigations because it involves lots of things and the number of students is huge; investigations cannot be completed over night.”
