JULIA GREY reports
LEARNERS who were caught drunk and jiving during school hours in a township shebeen by MEC for Education Ignatius Jacobs earlier this week are now going to face the music, as Principal Cass Sehloho vows to make them pay for their ”unbecoming behaviour”.
Instead of attending a sports meeting, about 300 learners from Ingxayizvile High School gathered in the Oasis nightclub in Thembisa. When Jacobs arrived at the scene, he was met by the sight of under-age pupils in the throws of a debauched party. Some learners were half-naked, some were so inebriated they had to be carried out of the nightclub – while others sober enough to recognise who Jacobs was fled the scene.
Action is due to be taken against the nightclub owner, Colin Du Toit, for selling liquor to under-age students. A traffic officer, who was acting as DJ in the Oasis nightclub while his car was parked outside, is also under investigation.
Sehloho says that all of the approximately 300 pupils who had been involved in the fiasco are facing the consequences for their actions. As part of the disciplinary process, the parents of all the students involved will be asked to come to the school. This is likely to be quite a task, since Sehloho says most parents ”vanish into thin air after registering their children”. He further blames the lack of parental involvement for the breakdown in schooling.
Following his bust of the revelling school children, Jacobs held a meeting with the teachers and students at the school yesterday, emphasising that they must focus on the business of learning and teaching. Sehloho says that he ”appreciated the stand taken by Mr Jacobs. It is a commendable thing. He’s a hands-on man and he’d like to make a difference in his position as MEC.”
Sehloho believes the main breakdown, besides parental neglect, is discipline. He himself is a karate instructor, and has a Karate club at the school, which he hopes will instill a better sense of discipline in the students.
Sehloho has vowed to encourage teachers to ”pull up their socks”. The school has a long way to go to meet Jacobs’ demand that they get a 60% matric pass rate this time around – last year they got just over half that, achieving a dismal 31%.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, February 3, 2000.
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