By Paul Nyathi
After all the hype around allegations that Magwegwe High School in Bulawayo, Headmaster William Ncube ordered pupils at the school not to sing Shona songs, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has dismissed the allegations.
Bulawayo Acting Provincial Education Director (PED) Mrs Olicah Kaira said investigations had proved that the allegations were false.
“We have done the necessary investigations and established that Mr Ncube addressed a team of pupils in a bus going for provincial sporting events at the White City Stadium. He encouraged pupils to show that Bulawayo, as a metropolitan province is diverse and do that through song and dance, in line with the new curriculum. He advised pupils to sing in all the 16 official languages, especially in preparation for the national competitions which will be held at the same venue,” she said.
An anonymous letter made social media headlines last week alleging that Ncube had ordered students at the school not to sing Shona songs as directed by the PED.
The Acting PED dismissed the claims that she had banned the use of the Shona language in the province.
“It is saddening to note that we have such elements in society and such accusations are unfortunate, untrue, damaging, unfounded and malicious. We are carrying out further investigations to try and get to the source of the document,” she said.
Mrs Kaira also said the ministry was not convinced that the document was penned by pupils.
“I went to Magwegwe High School myself on Friday to get to the bottom of the matter and judging by the strong political language, that letter was written by a mature person with a sound political mind and just wanted to hide behind being a child. I have since submitted a report to the Permanent secretary of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Dr Sylvia Utete-Masango,” said Mrs Kaira.
ZimEye.com spoke to a learner who was part of the team that was addressed by the headmaster before their departure to White City Stadium for provincial athletics competitions.
The pupil also dismissed the allegations indicating that she never heard the headmaster say the statements made against him.
“I was in the bus seated to the back of the bus and other learners were singing before the headmaster asked everyone to stop singing to make an announcement,” said the pupil.
“I did not hear him say anything about Shona songs he only encouraged us to go and win the games and to cheer each other up as much as possible,” said the pupil.