Cape schools closure: pupils left unsure

Cape Town - 141210 - Pictured is Samantha Zeederberg, school governing body chairwoman. Lavisrylaan Primary is one of 16 schools, which have to close. Picture: David Ritchie

Cape Town - 141210 - Pictured is Samantha Zeederberg, school governing body chairwoman. Lavisrylaan Primary is one of 16 schools, which have to close. Picture: David Ritchie

Published Dec 11, 2014

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Cape Town - Parents of pupils at the 16 Western Cape schools which lost a two-year battle to remain open, say their children are ending the academic year not knowing if they’ll be returning to their schools next year.

The Supreme Court of Appeal judgment was handed down just one day before the end of the school year, leaving parents with questions, including whether they needed to find a new school and should they return uniforms they had bought for next year.

In 2012, former Western Cape Education MEC Donald Grant decided to close 17 schools for reasons including dwindling pupil numbers and multigrade classes.

The schools approached the Western Cape High Court in July last year, and it ordered that they should remain open. Grant then took the case to the Supreme Court of Appeal, which decided 16 of the schools should close and only Beauvallon Secondary in Valhalla Park would stay open.

Ebrahim Lawrence, governing body chairman of Valpark Primary in Valhalla Park, said the provincial education department was not going to close the school “without a fight”.

“It is heartbreaking for the children.”

He said the pupils would probably be placed in Bishop Lavis schools, which meant that going to school they would have to move from the “turf” of one gang to another. “This is so dangerous for our children and even for the parents who have to fetch them.”

Marda van Wyk, mother of a Grade 5 pupil at LK Zeeman Primary in Paarl, said the children were confused after being told last year their school would remain open.

“The school is doing so well at the moment.”

Samantha Zeederberg, governing body chairwoman at Lavisrylaan Primary in Bishop Lavis, said she was in tears after hearing of the court’s decision. There had been many improvements at the school in the past two years, she said.

Jessica Shelver, spokeswoman for Education MEC Debbie Schäfer, said “the whole point of the exercise” was to ensure that opportunities for pupils were improved.

“This means that we will have a placement plan for every child to achieve this objective. We will treat each school on a case-by-case basis, taking current circumstances into account. We will communicate these plans to parents to ensure that they fully understand the advantages of merging or closing any schools.”

Vanessa le Roux, co-ordinator of Save our Schools, which has been campaigning for the schools to remain open, said one of the big concerns was that rural children would drop out.

ANC Western Cape leader Marius Fransman said the department closed mostly “Afrikaans coloured schools in poor areas”, schools it maintained were unviable and had low numbers. They did not give the same attention “to more than 40 struggling rich schools in a similar predicament”.

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