Johannesburg - For months, pupils at Roodepoort Primary School weren’t taught because of the battles between their school, the community and the Gauteng Department of Education.
Now, the pupils will have to cram in their entire curriculum within a short space of time and have to study for the Annual National Assessments (ANAs).
On Friday, the mediation team appointed to resolve the problems at the Davidsonville school announced the institution would open on Tuesday and classes would commence on Wednesday.
About 8.6 million pupils in grades 1 to 9 are expected to write the ANAs from September 15.
When Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi closed the school for the third time last month, he said the pupils were lagging behind on their school work and were only on the March curriculum.
Education spokesman Phumla Sekhonyane said that from Monday, pupils would be given psychosocial counselling and would start classes on Wednesday.
“They are going to write the ANAs. There is a catch-up plan related to the ANAs. We already have facilitators who are going to work with teachers for the preparation of the learners.”
Sekhonyane said that once the ANAs were completed, the pupils would start a catch-up plan for their normal school work.
“It is going to be a hard process and that’s why we’ve arranged ongoing trauma debriefing for the learners and teachers.”
The community’s main issue was the appointment of the principal and her deputies.
The head of the task team, Dr Molefe Tsele, said they had agreed that “the trigger event is a non-issue in so far as it can be seen as an obstacle to the reopening of the school”.
He said a process of social cohesion that included the Davidsonville and Matholeville communities should be initiated.
“There must be a special focus for the development of Davidsonville, Matholeville and other affected communities with a view to address the socio-economic challenges, and a team of eminent leaders should be identified to support the process,” Tsele said.
Lesufi said: “This is a win-win, lose-lose situation. No one won here and no one lost. We are going to have a catch-up programme in the mornings and afternoons. We are also going to speak to unions to see if we can have classes during the holidays so the learners don’t suffer any further.”
Roodepoort Community Forum member Leonard Martin said the mediation team had come up with a “holistic solution”.
On the issue of the principal keeping her job, Martin said: “The community from the word go have petitioned on the issue of processes in appointments and not persons, not colour.
“The community has stressed what was at issue here – the review of processes (of hiring principals) to move forward. We’ve reached an understanding that the community will be integral to actually move forward and sort out issues.”
The Star