Pretoria - Parents have given Curro Foundation School in Roodeplaat seven days to come up with a written plan on what steps will be taken to address the matter of segregated classes at the school.
On Thursday night, parents and management held a heated meeting about the issue of separate classes for white and black children at the school.
The school has apologised but maintains it did nothing wrong by dividing foundation phase classes by race.
The meeting was for grades R to 2 pupils after parents raised concerns. The issue sent social networks buzzing.
One parent said he was in a meeting with the school head, John Bisset, last week and he was informed that white parents were worried about the large number of black pupils enrolled at the school.
Bisset apparently apologised.
A group of about 30 parents of pupils at the school signed a petition demanding to know why some classes were made up entirely of either black or white pupils.
The school claims this is not racial segregation. Due to the small number of white pupils, they wanted them to make friends with pupils who shared the same culture was the explanation.
At Roodeplaat, 46 percent of the pupils are black and 44 percent white. The others are Asian and coloured.
At the parents’ meeting on Thursday night, regional manager at Curro Holdings André Pollard apologised to parents but said the school had nothing to hide.
“The things that happen here, happen at other schools and there is nothing wrong with it,” he said.
Pollard said some white parents were unhappy with the enrolment of black pupils. But, he added, they wanted to maintain a multi-cultural school.
He said the white-only classes were for pupils who had Afrikaans as a home language. English-speaking white children and black children were together.
A white parent at the meeting claimed teachers targeted their children because they had sided with black parents.
Pollard said they would split the classes and teachers will make the decision on where each child will go. Parents will be included in the process, he promised.
Curro Holdings chief executive Andries Greyling sent a letter to parents at their 41 schools countrywide about the incident. He said: “I want to state clearly that Curro does not support any form of racial segregation in our schools.”
He blamed it on a misunderstanding and said the group was investigating the matter internally.
Parent Thulani Ntombela, who has three children in the school, said it was pure racism. He said the school should not apologise, but change its policies.
DA education spokesman Khume Ramulifho said he had written to Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi and the South African Human Rights Commission to investigate the matter.
Ramulifho said: “The Constitution is clear: Segregation based on race is wrong, and every South African should reject any form of racism or any action that promotes racism. Should the allegations contained in this petition prove to be true, the result is that racism will be perpetuated, and severely damage our country’s progression towards a non-racial future.”
SAHRC spokesman Isaac Mangena said the commission was concerned about incidents of racism in schools. He said although they hadn’t received a complaint yet, they were monitoring the situation very closely.
Mangena said: “Segregation based on race in schools perpetuates the negative stereotypes around race, especially considering the history we coming from as a country.”
He said the commission was not convinced about the school’s explanation. “Our view is that kids need to be integrated as early as possible, as we believe it’s the desire expressed by parents in this matter. Should these allegations prove to be true, the school will have lost out on a good opportunity to contribute to transformation and nation building,” he added.
The Gauteng Education Department condemned the issue and said officials were due to visit the school on Friday to investigate.