25 Matsha students suspended

It never rains but pours at Matsha College.

Barely six months after the school lost six Form 5 students in a fatal car accident, another 25 Form 5 students believed to be ring leaders in the strike that followed the road accident, were last week suspended from school.

The school Head boy and his assistant are also on the list. The suspension is for twenty days while expulsion from boarding school is from 26 April to 25th November 2016. Following these suspensions, some teachers wrote a letter to the Chief Education Officer of Hukuntsi Region to express their displeasure over the matter,demanding to know the criterion used to pick only 25 children out of the 600 students in the school.

The teachers also want to know why the school management did not involve Social Workers (S & CD) to represent parents during the investigations. “Maximum force was used by Police to force our children to end up saying untruths to save their breath,” say the petitioners.

One parent confirmed to The Midweek Sun that his child has been suspended from school for 20 days. “My child has also been charged P1500 for allegedly damaging the windows. The information I got from him is that he was used by teachers as a whistleblower during the strike but the same teachers somersaulted and said they were involved in the strike,” said the parent.

The teachers have also proposed a meeting between parents, representatives of PTA, HODs, S&CD, Teachers, Police and the Chief Education Officer “as soon as possible” to amicably resolve the impasse.