Durban - Matrics at a troubled eThekwini school had to write their final exam under police guard amid threats of arson.
The local councillor, members of the community police forum (CPF) and metro police kept watch on Friday at the Chief Luthayi High School in Hammarsdale, after a group of feuding matric pupils had threatened to set the school and certain teachers’ cars on fire.
The school was in the grip of gangsterism and a week earlier Grade 9 pupils who had completed their exams went on a rampage, destroying furniture and breaking windows, said principal Sibusiso Madonsela.
The Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal announced at the weekend it would commission a study to address security concerns at schools across the province.
The study would be comprehensive and could take researchers between six and 12 months to complete, said department head Dr Enoch Nzama, at a three-day strategic planning programme.
A Daily News team visited the school on Friday just after the pupils had written their English exam and found broken desks, chairs and windows.
Meanwhile, pupils strolled the streets of Hammarsdale and took turns to write good luck messages on each other’s shirts or to cut up their stockings and skirts.
Madonsela said teachers were so scared some had walked to school, fearing their cars would be targeted, while others did not show up at all on Friday.
:twisted: :crylaugh: