Parents push for removal of headteacher for impregnating pupils
Concerned parents in Malawi’s eastern district of Machinga are pushing education authorities to remove headmaster for Njiwalero Primary School in Ungwe Village, in the area of Traditional Authority Nyambi whom they accuse of flirting with school girls.
The parents claim that the head teacher Gibson Maini, whose wife divorced him because of his promiscuous tendencies, has since gone on rampage impregnating young girls willy-nilly.
He is alleged to have turned five own pupils into teenage-mothers since his posting to the school in 2004 consequently forced them to drop out from school.
Maini who is in his late 50’s is reported to have taken advantage of the pre-dominantly semi-illiterate Yao community surrounding the school by intimidating them whenever they confront him on his lust for the ‘sweet sixteens’.
Some women whom Nyasa Times talked to during a recent visit to the area, whose children fell prey to the ‘unzipped’ head teacher, lamented the man’s unbecoming behavior saying it is increasing the number of girls who are dropping out from school in the area.
“The man is just so rude. He even shouts at our village headman whenever he is questioned about the issue,” complained one woman who refused to disclose her name for fear of reprisals as she sits in the school’s teachers/parents committee, chaired by Maini himself.
The woman claimed that one of the girls was also kidnapped by Maini two months ago and kept at his house for a “wife” for a full month, only to leave the house after she was grilled by her parents and relatives.
She has since quit school and engaged into prostitution as a reaction to her removal from the “marriage of convenience.”
Maini was not at his house which is within the school’s compound when Nyasa Times wanted to get his side of the story.
In the meantime, some parents are planning to march to the district’s education manager to table their concerns after the school committee members failed to discipline the school’s head.
“We wonder why the authorities are not acting on this man’s devilish behaviour when we have reported his mischief to them so many times. Is this place a damping site for uncultured people? We are tired of him. 2004 is long time ago. We’ll be forced to take the law in our hands to remove him from among us if the authorities continue to protect him,” said another concerned parent.
Officials at Eastern Education Division told Nyasa Times that they will investigate the issue.
Njiwalero Primary Schools is in the constituency whose Member of Parliament is Minister of Economic Planning and Development, Atupele Muluzi.
Recent research by Forum for African Women Educationist in Malawi has singled out teacher-to-girl-child relationship as among major contributing factors forcing girls to drop out from school.
It says this is so either because of pregnancy or psychological problems of the victims after being proposed by those they expected to get advice from on the dangers of sexual relationships.
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