A school head in Mashonaland East province is under investigation by officials from the Ministry of Education after he allegedly broke a pupil’s arm while “disciplining” her for coming to school late.
David Mayimbo, the Mudzi district education inspector told NewsDay that the headmaster at Bangauya Secondary School, Jonathan Mwashaireni is being investigated. Said Mayimbo:
It is true we received the report of the matter involving assault of a student at Bangauya Secondary School.
We have since deployed an investigation team and I am still yet to get feedback on the matter. Without that, I can’t make any further comments.
The victim of the assault is a 15-year-old pupil whose hand was fractured. This was revealed by Better Life Foundation director Emmanuel Manyati, who reported the case to education officials. He wrote:
It is uncalled for a headmaster to beat up a student who walks about 12km to school every day.
She is one of the hundreds coming from very poor backgrounds and is vulnerable.
To her, education is the only source of hope in the marginalised hard to reach deep-end of Mudzi district.
… We believe rural-based school officials must understand the challenges that girls go through daily with family household chores.
For the headmaster to be emotional and beat a student, breaking her arm is too cruel, to say the least. We will not fold our hands while rural girls suffer abuse at the hands of ruthless men.
Shamwari Yemwanasikana director Ekenia Chifamba vowed not to rest until the headmaster is punished for the assault. She said:
We will not rest until the headmaster is brought to book. My heart bleeds when I think of the trauma that our girl is going through.
We should join hands to unearth more of these untold stories of unbearable pain and trauma caused by those who we entrust with the future of our children.