Johannesburg - Order seems to have been restored to Roodepoort Primary School after months of bickering between the Gauteng Department of Education and a section of parents over the suitability of the principal.
On Monday, the majority of pupils reported for classes, a week after the school was re-opened. It was the first time in months that most of the 1 300 pupils reported for school, following countless meetings between the department and parents to resolve the dispute around the principal.
The school was temporarily closed for the third time last month, following a dispute that started a year ago when parents claimed the principal was unfairly appointed ahead of a better qualified teacher. The parents disrupted schooling and there was violence outside the premises.
On Sunday, the department and parents met again to discuss whether schooling should continue at the school, after it was reopened on Wednesday on the recommendations of a mediation team appointed by Gauteng Premier David Makhura.
The mediation team also resolved that the principal and her two deputies should keep their jobs.
Two investigations – one looking into the officials’ appointments and another into allegations of financial misconduct and corruption – cleared the school’s management.
Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi met with the parents and agreed that all pupils should return to Roodepoort Primary because the alternative school, Lufhereng, did not have good infrastructure.
Some parents had said they wanted their children to stay at the alternative school because they feared for their safety. The department promised to beef up security at Roodepoort
.
On Monday, provincial education spokeswoman Phumla Sekhonyane said more than 1 100 of the pupils had come to school.
“Counselling sessions are taking place on an ad hoc basis as per requests. The environment is calm both inside and outside,” she said.
As a result of the disruptions at the school, the pupils were lagging way behind the curriculum.
Sekhonyane said that other than receiving counselling, the pupils would take part in catch-up lessons. The catch-up programme would include the deployment of subject advisers to work with the teachers, the addition of an extra hour to the school’s daily timetable and extra classes during the school holidays.
Sekhonyane said at least 60 parents had applied for their children to be transferred from the school next year, while one teacher had resigned
.
The department is also looking into the feasibility that pupils from Mathole, near Davidsonville, should get their own school in the long term.
One of the recommendations of the mediation team was that a process of social cohesion between the Davidsonville and Mathole communities be initiated.
The Star