Calm has returned at the Catholic-run Gokomere High School in Masvingo in the wake of disturbances by Form 4 students, forcing authorities to order parents to pick up all Ordinary Level boys from the school, although only 15 have been expelled and the rest allowed back into the hostels.
Authorities at the school last Friday wrote a memo to parents of all Form 4 boys boarding at the school to take them home as part of a cocktail of measures to restore normalcy.
In a letter to parents last Friday, school principal Mr Acquanos Mazhunga said the move to order all Form 4 boys to go home was meant to curb unrest after gang warfare between ‘O’ level and A level boys.
“Please come and collect your child today. I am sure this will curb the persistent unrest in the school,” read part of the letter by Mr Mazhunga addressed to parents.
The development comes during the time when Ordinary Level candidates have already started sitting for their final examinations.
While most of the Form 4 boys are now back at school, the expelled 15 will have to commute from home for each day they sit their exams.
Mr Mazhunga said the move to order parents to pick their children was sparked by gang wars between some rowdy Form 4 boys who were fighting against the Advanced Level boys.
“We now have calm at the school and I am happy to announce all the Form 4 boys are back at the school except some 15 rowdy boys who will sit for their final exams coming from home,” he said.
“We had to take drastic action because the Form 4 boys were fighting their Form 6 counterparts and we identified 15 ringleaders whom we have now banished from the school and will only come to sit for their final exams.”
The Gokomere High School head said the same “rotten apples” banished from the school were the masterminds of a crippling strike that recently rocked the school.
Form 4 students at Gokomere High a few weeks ago marched from the school to Masvingo City to present a petition to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education officials over alleged corruption at the school.
The students marched along the Harare-Masvingo Highway and were stopped by riot police a few kilometres from the city and ordered back. Herald
