A school head from Nyanga escaped jail after the Nyanga Magistrates’ Court elected to warn and caution him before discharging him following his arrest for slapping a learner.
Simon Kwakurai (42) who heads Sanhai Primary School pleaded guilty to charges of assault.
Brief facts of the matter are that on 22 May 2023, the complainant was at school when the school’s development committee (SDC) members went around sending students with outstanding fees home.
Despite the illegality of the practice, school development committees across the country persistently turn away learners who haven’t paid their tuition fees.
Moreover, headmasters and teachers often resort to corporal punishment as a disciplinary measure, although it has been outlawed.
In the case of Kwakurai, the SDC members asked the complainant to go home but he refused to go arguing that his father had successfully pleaded with the headmaster to pay at a later date
The SDC members took the learner to the headmaster who slapped him five times in the face. He started bleeding through the nose and reported the matter to the Police leading to Kwakurai’s arrest.
The headmaster was arraigned before the Nyanga Magistrates’ Court where he was warned and cautioned before he was discharged.
