08 Mar 2023

Indiscipline and use of illicit drugs in schools requires parents to take a bold step and assist teachers. This seemed to be a shared or common concern among Members of Parliament in their comments on the Ministry of Education and Skills Development’s budget estimates for the 2023/2024 financial year.

Responding to legislators’ concerns and contributions on Tuesday, education and skills development minister, Dr Douglas Letsholathebe said he was also concerned that amidst the escalating use of drugs in schools, parents continued to keep a distance and watched as teachers battled the problem alone.

“I would like to appeal to parents not to be too distant from their children, because some of these situations emanate from our homes.

There were instances where Parents Teachers Associations (PTA) of some schools rotated the same members for years because parents were not willing to come forth and sit in such committees,” Dr Letsholathebe said.

However, he promised that the ministry would not rest until the issue of drugs usage and indiscipline were rooted out in schools.

“At the moment schools are working hand in hand with the police to try and arrest the situation,” he added.

Again, the minister was against the use of corporal punishment in schools, saying there had proven to be other better forms of instilling discipline in learners.

On schools’ performance, Dr Letsholathebe also said that the ministry was also concerned that rural schools seemed to perform worse than urban ones in all examinations, hence the move by the ministry to be positively biased in starting use of tablets and computers at those schools.

“In an effort to address poor performance of all schools, the ministry will engage all stakeholders to look into the way the curriculum was presented and assessed and make addresses if and where necessary,” he added.

Further, Dr Letsholathebe said the ministry had made efforts to maintain the teacher-learner ratio which was used during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic because research had revealed that learners grasped better when they were few in class.

Also, the minister lamented shortage of classrooms across many schools in the country which he said continued to frustrate such efforts.

On the issue of Top Achievers initiative, Dr Letsholathebe explained that such was intended to reward citizens only, adding however, “we must admit that we have citizens of all skin colours and origins, so we should be careful not to discriminate others because of their physical appearance.”

Earlier, some MPs had expressed concerns about a number of issues, common among them was the escalating use of drugs as well as indiscipline in schools.

Some had suggested that corporal punishment be used as was the case in the olden days to discipline learners. Some legislators complained about annual examination results that seemed to have a geographical aspect to them given that rural schools always performed poorer than urban ones.

Legislators also pleaded with the minister to ensure that initiatives such as Top Achievers were only awarded to citizens to reward good performance.

Dr Letsholathebe appreciated legislators for their various recommendations and assured them that they had been noted for the future.

Parliament consequently approved the education and skills development ministry’s budget comprising over P733 million and over P15.041 billion for the development and recurrent allocations respectively for the 2023/2024 financial year. ENDS