‘Spiritual calling’ causes learners to collapse

Cape Town - Schooling was disrupted at Bardale Primary School in Mfuleni after several learners collapsed allegedly due to a spiritual calling.

Provincial Education Department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said the incident led to several learners being sent home for displaying adverse symptoms.

“The school was disrupted yesterday (Monday). The incident revolved around an alleged spiritual calling. The WCED did provide counselling support to the school. A meeting was arranged between staff and parents at the school. Learners who were not feeling well were advised to stay at home. The learners need to address this with their parents and their spiritual healer according to their family rituals if required,” said Hammond.

Hammond said schools must respect and acknowledge that all learners have different belief systems, however, the primary purpose of schools was for academic reasons.

“Schools need to ensure that any religion or spiritual belief system does not disrupt the core business of the classroom, and that is teaching and learning. If they do, this needs to be treated on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the well-being of all learners concerned. Teaching and learning continued today (Tuesday) without incident,” she said.

According to a parent, Nombuso Baartman, the incident started about 11am when one learner collapsed while with friends. A few minutes later others also collapsed.

“This is not the first time this kind of incident happened at the school but the last time it was just two learners and they were immediately attended to. As parents, we are obviously worried because children play together and they share many things. The school swiftly responded to this incident and parents were immediately alerted,” said Baartman.

SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) provincial chairperson Jonovan Rustin said: “We are not medical experts therefore we need WCED to provide the necessary support to actually unpack and understand why learners are showing the same symptoms or same incident which happened in Khayelitsha schools. As we are entering the exam phase, it will be very important for us to deal with this as a matter of urgency.”

Cape Times