Pretoria - No parent sends their child to school to come back home with a missing finger, spokesperson for the Department of Education Steve Mabona said.
Mabona made the remarks on Monday while visiting Laerskool Booysens where a Grade 6 pupil lost the tip of his pinky finger in what is believed to have been an accident.
Mabona said the department was sincerely apologetic for the incident and will have its legal department look at the possibility of compensating the injured pupil as reaction to parents’ clear call for compensation.
The incident occurred on February 20 and sparked social media interest and outrage as people called for intervention from MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi and thorough investigation and disciplinary measures.
However, according to Mabona, the department has found no suggestion of a fight or violent scuffle. He said children being children, found an opportunity to play and push each other during a brief break to change classes.
Explaining the incident to the media, Mabona spoke sitting in the school's cafeterias alongside staff. He revealed that the injured pupil lost the tip of his pinky finger when a pushed door clipped it off his hand.
Teachers said the 12-year-old boy was rushed to Kalafong Hospital with his finger tip shoved in ice but the hospital said the severed piece was too small to stitch back onto the hand.
Mabona said the child was only returning to school on Monday since the incident and his father had also been away in Vhenda since the incident occurred. However, with his return, the department will be looking to provide necessary counselling.
He said the pupil’s father asked why the police did not open a case, but he was of the view that the police might have seen it as an accident. He said the department was still regretful of the incident nonetheless and would not want a repeat of such incidents.
“The school has actually updated the district (education office) on the incident and between the parent, there was an issue of a parent that was not around. He was somewhere in Vhenda. So, between February 20 and today, nothing much could have been done between the school and the parent because the parent was not around.
“This meant that counselling could not proceed because the child was not even at school. Actually the child only came back today, but the counselling of pupils who witnessed this incident has already started and the victim will also be given the same support.”
However, things were not all smooth sailing for Mabona who was bombarded by an avalanche of frustrations from parents at the school’s gate.
Frustrated parents said the child’s severed finger was just the tip of the ice bag when it came to problems they had with the school.
A calm and collected Mabona allowed angry parents to vent about unsolved issues of lack of pupil discipline, lack of a property School Governing Body (SGB) structure and school management that did not want to work with parents.
Mabona said the department deemed such a small SGB dysfunction and parents would have to come together and elect a complete SGB on March 18. He said there would be another meeting between the department and parents over progress made to address all other grievances.
Concerned parent Raylord Ndlovu said the pupil’s parent was still not well enough to speak on the matter to the media.
“We are supporting the parents and we are saying the department must also engage the parents component to get the other side of the story as investigations continue. We would love to see this school’s complications resolved because we’ve been submitting grievances and complaints to the department for the past two years now,” Ndlovu said.