Africa-Press – Eswatini. Mhlatane High Principal Dr Mandla Dlamini has defended his controversial decision to punish pupils at his school by using corporal punishment, saying he was bringing order where it appeared that pupils had lost their way.
Dr Dlamini was recorded on video, which has now been shared widely on social media and for which he has received criticism from the public, giving a number of lashes on three boys.
He has explained his position, saying these pupils had been disorderly and needed to be punished.
However, Dlamini remains unshaken by the criticism, saying in an interview yesterday that he was all about positive discipline.
He did, however, offer his apologies to those who felt his method of integrating positive discipline with a mild form of corporal punishment was not the right way to go.
The principal said in a school environment as a head, one was supposed to take the lead role. He said the learners were getting wayward,doing things willy-nilly in such a way such that teachers were no longer able to control them. He said this was where he came in and decided to bring the pupils to order.
He conceded that corporal punishment is still being carried out in schools from time to time, because learners have become very wild. As teachers they have to try to call them to order, begging and advising them to concentrate in class as examinations are around the corner.
Defending his position, Dr Dlamini gave examples of how bad the situation was turning out to be, especially after the enforced lockdowns and shift system introduced in schools.
In one such case, he revealed that there were learners doing Form I and Form II who only attended school on certain days due to the COVID-19 protocols. Once they are done with their work, Dlamini these learners go up and down causing havoc in the school, making noise and dragging chairs outside classrooms.
He said these pupils make the learning environment not to be conducive for others. He further lamented that there is a group of pupils who imbibe in alcohol and do that in the open.
suggesting
He said, however, he was not suggesting that they were the ones who were being punished in the video being circulated on social media platforms. Highlighting the spate of cases to support his position, he revealed that just recently they found a lot of empty beer bottles in the school toilet and wondered who the people taking alcohol in school premises were.
Dlamini said he then decided that learners must stay in class and not wonder outside so that he could identify those drinking alcohol around the school premises and also so that those in classes could not be disturbed.
The principal said when he caught the three pupils wandering outside class he tried calling them but they ran away. He said they were not even in their class.
The principal said he then decided to tell these learners that he would punish them in order to get them in line. He called it ‘kubeba’ in vernacular.
Dlamini said it is not all the time where they bring in parents whenever learners did something wrong. He said they were integrating positive discipline into schools but there are moments when they exercised corporal punishment and they did not do that to the extremes.
Dlamini said there had been incidents of learners smoking inside the school premises and wondered what would have people said if that had circulated on social media.
Dlamini said the same people would be saying there was no discipline at Mhlatane school.
He is concerned that the school has lost its values, pointing out that a lot of these learners have not been in school and they are wild with no interest to learn and their work is disappointing.
The principal wondered what he must do as an administrator. He said even in this incident it is not that he punished a hundred pupils but it was only three learners. “Akungabi nje kutsi umuntfu atsi what is happening yintfo le right,” Dlamini said, adding that as a leader when one see that the system is collapsing one needs to act up.
structures
The principal said one could tell when touring schools that the structures are collapsing, revealing that when he had asked teachers what was happening, they told him that they were scared (with what was going on in schools).
Dlamini said he told the teachers that they must not just give up and let the pupils do as they please because at the end of the day the parents will blame them when things go wrong. “Kepha ke nangabe khona lapho kutoba khona labeva ngatsi cha lelijaha lelidzala lihambe kabi ayibe mayoyo bekunene,” Dlamini said in vernacular, apologising to those who may find what he did unacceptable.
He added that what they do as teachers is not because they want to defy any rules or anyone.
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