Johannesburg - Gauteng's education department head had the final say on school admissions, but the decision should be well-considered, a lawyer for Johannesburg's Rivonia Primary School said on Thursday.
“The final decision will be that of the head of department,” Gerrit Pretorius, SC, for the school, told the Constitutional Court.
But he said factors that should be considered included whether there was another school with capacity, within a reasonable distance, which the child could attend. This needed to be discussed between the department and the school. Pretorius said in the Rivonia area, for example, there were two other schools.
One was a school on prison grounds run by the Gauteng education department, which was only half-full because it was poorly managed.
Pretorius said there were more than 800 pupils at Rivonia Primary School. Forty-six percent of the pupils were black. Only 47 pupils were not paying fees.
The school was run by a “fantastic principal” and the children received what was promised to them in the Constitution.
The matter came to the Constitutional Court after the school refused to admit a child to Grade One when the parents applied in 2010, on the grounds the school was full.
The parties hoped the court would determine who had the say on schools' admissions policies.
The SA Onderwysersunie (SAOU) (SA Teachers Union) told the court the education department wanted unfettered discretion to override determinations on capacity.
Its counsel Raylene Keightley said the SAOU believed the department should only become involved if the school governing body was acting unlawfully, unreasonably or unconstitutionally.
There needed to be a symbiosis between school governing bodies and the government's power.
Forcing a school to take an extra 100 pupils would infringe on the rights of the children. If this had to be done, it should happen in a planned and systematic way.
And the planning should be done long before an appeal process, when children were refused admission, as schools had already completed their budgets.
After Keightley, counsel for all parties were given an opportunity to reply. - Sapa