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The entrance to Hamilton High School in Bulawayo

Nqobile Tshili Chronicle Correspondent—
EDUCATION chiefs have called on Hamilton High School in Bulawayo to investigate and punish pupils who bully other children after an incident last Friday in which Lower Sixth pupils were targeted. The school’s three most senior prefects allegedly corralled Lower Sixth pupils who started learning at the school this year in a classroom, before inviting Upper Sixth and Form 4 students to attack them as part of an “initiation” process.

It is a practice known to happen at dozens of high schools across the country, although the brutality meted varies. Teachers and pupils yesterday told The Chronicle that bullying at Hamilton was now out of control. A teacher, who cannot be named as he was not cleared to talk to the media, said: “Lower Sixth students were assaulted on Friday afternoon after most of the teachers had already left for home between 2PM and 3PM. One of the students has a heart problem and they didn’t care to consider that.

“The headboy, deputy headboy and a senior prefect mobilised Form 4 and Upper Sixth pupils who’re original Hamiltonians to attack the Lower Sixth pupils in the name of initiation. “The attack happened in the Upper Sixth arts class, which is at the far, far end of the school. The prefects are always protected as this isn’t the first bullying incident that they have initiated.”

A teacher stopped the attacks on Friday, our source said, but the prefects insisted they had been holding a sanctioned meeting with the students. The source said it is against the school’s rules for pupils to hold meetings with pupils without a teacher or the senior master, who is the patron of the prefects’ body, present.

A Lower Sixth student said: “We’re all scared. You come to school to learn but there’s an ingrained bullying culture at the school which is making it difficult to focus on my studies. The school must make a statement that bullying is unacceptable by taking action.” Hamilton High School headmaster, Jamani Fuyane, referred all questions to the Provincial Education Director Dan Moyo who said the incident had not been reported to him.

Moyo, however, said bullying was unacceptable in schools. “Those pupils who engage in bullying must be punished. It’s up to the school management to provide a safe learning environment,” he said. Last month, 10 Form 1 and 2 pupils at Milton High School were admitted to the United Bulawayo Hospitals after they were stoned by their seniors. Some of the pupils suffered fractured bones.

Several cases of bullying have been reported at Milton High School in the past. In 2013, a pupil at the school lost one of his testicles after a bully grabbed and twisted it. Last year, another pupil from Milton was involved in a fist-fight with a teacher. He was expelled.