KZN Education Department probes racism at Durban school

Published May 22, 2018

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Durban - Race tension at schools would remain a challenge unless education officials acted quickly against it, mindsets changed and school policies were more inclusive of races and cultures, education stakeholders said.

Their comments come in light of the recent intervention at Grosvenor Girls’ High School on the Bluff. Complaints about alleged racism at the school were sent to provincial officials.

Officials from the Premier’s Office and provincial Education Department met school and parent representatives on Friday.

On Sunday, parent bodies said race-related incidents were sporadic, but not uncommon, with many going unreported because parents and pupils feared backlash from their schools.

An education analyst felt it was too soon to expect these incidents to stop altogether.

Department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said meetings at Grosvenor Girls’ High School would continue until matters were resolved.

“We have come in to assist the school to rid itself of any form of racism that it might be practising knowingly or unknowingly. We are optimistic and confident that the situation will be corrected.”

The allegations included maladministration, and racial slurs that were often hurled at pupils of colour.

Therona Moodley, spokesperson for the National Professional Teachers’ Association of SA, said while they welcomed the intervention, the department had failed the school.

“It took the Premier’s Office to coerce the department to do what they ought to have done when this matter was first reported to them in 2016. But we want to remain optimistic that it will come to a speedy resolution.

“We want to see accountability. We want to see allegations against the principal and management tested, and decisions to be made in a fair process,” she said.

Vee Gani, chairperson of the South Durban branch of the KZN Parents’ Association, said while racism at schools was not very common, incidents continued.

“It is not just this school. Many incidents go unreported by parents and pupils who are scared to take on schools for fear of victimisation.”

An added problem was that these issues were not resolved quickly, before they escalated.

“We’re dealing with a case from over a year ago which we escalated to the department, but we have still not heard from them,” said Gani.

Matakanye Matakanya, general-secretary of the National Association of School Governing Bodies, said this was more an issue at former Model C schools.

“The issue of migration comes into play where many pupils from the townships are now going to former ModelC schools. The root problem is that people do not want to change and align themselves with the law of the country, the constitution and the SA Schools Act.

“This is why we have instances where people use the k-word. Some school governing bodies are still entrenched in the past, formulating policies that do not treat black and white pupils the same.”

Education analyst Professor Labby Ramrathan said it was difficult to isolate any one cause of racism and prejudice in schools.

“Sometimes, it is perceptions of racism. For example, where a child may not be accepted into a school because there is no space, but it is perceived as a racist decision. In some cases, it is outright racism.

“Racism and sexism in schools will come out in different ways. It is still too early in our democracy to say that we should be at a point where every one of us will not be racist or sexist. I don’t think it is a widespread problem. We need to take each case on its merits and unpack it.”

Mahlambi said it was a “constant give and take”.

“Teachers and pupils come from different backgrounds. In a school you often find there are teachers from older regimes. New guys come in with new thinking. So it is a constant give and take. But schools are learning institutions. We cannot have an institution where some people perceive it as being a place of discrimination.”

Matakanya felt there was a solution.

“The school governing body must involve parents in the school. Together they must look at the language, culture and religion in the school community and ask: ‘How do we mediate these issues that cause tension in the community? How can we regulate it at our school so that we respect all cultures for the sake of quality learning and teaching?’

“Once you have the answer to that, you incorporate that into your school policy,” he said.

Daily News

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