Parents the world over treasure their children and do the best they can to afford them the necessary opportunities to make something of their lives.

Parents the world over treasure their children and do the best they can to afford them the necessary opportunities to make something of their lives.

Those with means spend staggering amounts so their offspring can get the best education money can buy. In poor communities, people make enormous sacrifices to provide their kith and kin with the education they deem necessary for them to escape squalor.

Sadly, such sacrifices often go to waste, bringing to mind the biblical lament about casting pearls before swine.

How else does one explain the actions of the rascals who have made it a habit of bunking school, making a nuisance of themselves and engaging in public violence at the slightest excuse in our country?

They were out in full force again this week; stoning cars, robbing people and generally being a nuisance, ostensibly in support of the family of Thato Radebe, the 14-year-old girl who was brutally gang-raped and murdered?

Thankfully, the education authorities in Soweto have promised to bring the pupils to book for skipping class, noting that the sprawling township has some of the worst-performing schools in the country.

Meanwhile, we urge the errant pupils to ponder the futility of their behaviour. May they, for Thato's sake, respect her mother's plea that the family does not need such "support" and that the pupils should stay in school and learn.