Johannesburg - An Eastern Cape school governing body is seeking an urgent court order to prevent Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga from closing four farm schools in the Fort Beaufort district.
Yandiswa Nqangela, secretary at one of the farm schools, filed the application with the Grahamstown High Court, arguing that education authorities in the Eastern Cape had failed to consult the schools before reaching the decision.
The schools take pupils in Grades R to 7.
Pupils attending the Lynedoch, Belmont and Belvedere farm schools live within 5km. Most are able to walk to school and home.
Some of the Huntley Glen Farm School's pupils live on the farm and walk to school. The department provides transport for the others.
Trouble for the parents and pupils began in November when the Huntley Glen Farm School's principal, Florence Stemele, told them of the decision to close the four schools this month.
The matter is to be heard on May 12.
The court was told that the instruction came from the office of the minister. The plan was that the pupils would be transferred to the nearby town of Adelaide, where they would stay in a gymnasium hostel. The education authorities would take them home for weekends.
The school governing bodies and parents of the four schools are opposed to the move as it would mean the children would stay in hostels far from the farming communities in which their parents worked.
“Children are likely to be inadequately supervised at hostels and are, therefore, at greater risk of bullying, violence and sexual assault,” Nqangela said.
She said the move would have the potential to break up families if one parent was required to move to town to care for the children, while the other remained on the farm.
“Clearly this decision to close the school will have a fundamental impact on family life and may result in massive adjustments for many families.”
In her submissions, Nqangela was adamant that the Eastern Cape department had failed to give the schools all necessary information.
It had also failed to follow procedures leading to the closure of schools.
Nqangela said plans to close farm schools in the towns of Barkly East and Peddie had collapsed.
Farmworkers and their employers had to pay for transport and for accommodation for children who attended the schools in town.
Nqangela provided the court with research reports from the Centre for Applied Legal Studies and the Catholic Institute on farm schools.
The studies focused on the effects that the closures would have on children and their families.
Nqangela has used the reports to ask the court to rule in favour of the four schools.
The reports emphasised that parents were not consulted properly before decisions were taken to close farm schools.
Nqangela said: “The (school governing bodies and farm schools) submit that, to ensure the constitutional rights of learners are not infringed by the closure and/or merger of public schools, the Eastern Cape Department of Education be required to produce a written plan setting out the information described in the guidelines on the closure or merger of schools.
“The closure appears to be imminent.
“The children’s constitutional rights to basic education, safety and security, and to have their interests considered paramount, are all threatened.”
Political Bureau
* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.