Johannesburg - Integrating township and urban schools will not promote social cohesion, the SA Teachers Union (SAOU) said on Tuesday.
“The process will create more problems within the education sector than it aims to solve and will possibly result in greater disruption and alienation,” SAOU chief executive Chris Klopper said in a statement.
He was reacting to a report in Beeld newspaper on Tuesday that newly appointed Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi had appointed a team to investigate amalgamating schools from different areas to create social cohesion.
Klopper said there were many well-documented cases of failed attempts at amalgamation in international education research.
“It would be better for the MEC to focus on improving functionality in currently dysfunctional schools rather than to disrupt already well established centres of quality education delivery, thus disadvantaging learners from all racial groups across the board.”
Sapa