A rural school in Limpopo has entered a second week without a principal after angry parents chased her away, allegedly over pupils’ poor performance and unfair process of promoting pupils to the next classes.
It is alleged that parents at Ramotshinyadi Secondary School outside Tzaneen have blamed the school principal for a low pass rate and failing to promote qualifying learners to the next classes.
Sowetan has been reliably informed that the principal has been absent since last week, fearing for safety.
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At least several parents and pupils confirmed that the principal was chased away. A resident who wished to remain anonymous told Sowetan the principal was whisked away by the police from the school last week Tuesday.
“We wanted to know why other pupils with similar results are not given fair treatment. Some of the learners who failed were condoned but others with similar results were not,” she said.
She said parents and department of education officials had held several meetings to try to resolve the issue.
A police officer confirmed that his colleagues had attended to an emergency call to rescue a principal from a mob.
But the chairperson of the school governing body, Walter Kgatla, denied that they had chased away the principal.
He said everything was under control and that learning and teaching were continuing without disruptions.
“We didn’t chase away the principal. As far as we know, there are no problems at the school, ” Kgatla said.
However, according to a former teacher close to the situation, the principal is fearing for her life as she had been nearly assaulted by a group of parents.
“It’s a pity that parents are blaming the principal for the poor results. She didn’t do anything wrong because some of the pupils didn’t qualify to be condoned, ” he said.
The former teacher added that the parents had previously removed another principal a few ago over similar claims.
Sowetan was denied entry to the school premises and was unable to get the principal’s contact details.
Provincial education department spokesperson Tidimalo Chuene had not responded at the time of going to print.
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