Education department weighs in on ‘unhygienic’ form of punishment

The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has thrown its weight behind Eden Park’s Stoneridge Primary School following a complaint which landed on the school’s doorstep.

A concerned parent of a Grade Six learner at the school has expressed that her daughter brought it to her attention that they are made to clean the toilets every day as a form of punishment.

She explained that they send their children to school to learn, not to clean the toilets.

“First of all, that is very unhygienic because our babies are still small and their immune systems are not that strong. Secondly, the school has cleaners and handymen that get a salary every month and that is on the government payroll. What are they doing if our children have to go to school to clean toilets?” she asked.

She voiced her upset about education being taken from their children for them to do jobs for people who get paid every 15th day of the month.

“I will not be very happy if my daughter ends up having fungus from cleaning toilets. That school is falling apart and what is the new principal doing about it? Does she have the children’s best interest at heart or is she focusing on her own doings?” she said.

Steve Mabona, spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Education, has since set the record straight.

“The Gauteng Department of Education would like to clarify that on September 1, Grade Six girls were implicated in writing profanities on the toilet walls. They were asked to clean those walls as a disciplinary measure. The intent was not malicious, but to correct wrong behaviour,” he said.

Mabona assures that the cleaning happened only once, “during the last period of the day, and then learners returned to class”.

“We support the school in its effort to instil learner discipline and strongly condemn any acts of misconduct, which seek to undermine the dignity of our learning institutions. The department relentlessly appeals to parents in assisting to enforce discipline in and outside the school environment,” Mabona said.

In response to the department’s correspondence, the concerned parent says they [GDE] feel that children are telling them lies and that upsets her because her daughter is much more disciplined.

“We teach her and I will not tolerate that my daughter is cleaning toilets for punishment. Back in the day punishment was detention after school not doing the job of cleaners. They will never take fault for the corruption they commit at the school and the abuse they put our children through,” she said.