Rising above challenges

I WANT to congratulate the South Peninsula High School matric pupils of 2016 on the excellent results they obtained.

The teachers and parents of the school must also take credit for these outstanding results.

Despite the circumstances under which the school had to operate, the school is commended for its smooth running.

The Western Cape Education Department disregarded the feelings of the South Peninsula High School community and the wider Western Cape community by trying to destabilise the school because it felt that I had been too critical of the department.

I want to thank the progressive educational and political forces in the Western Cape which pointed out that the department wanted to control the soul of education in the Western Cape. My only transgression was that I criticised the department for the way in which it abused teachers through its labour relations department, and that I was not prepared to be bullied.

I will fight my suspension, dismissal and the refusal of the department to pay my leave credits with the Education Labour Relations Council, failing which I will take the matter to the high court.

Officials of the department cannot use their positions, whether educational or political, to silence their critics. It cannot be business as usual. Many progressive political analytical groups have always believed in education for liberation, and therefore, the South Peninsula High School community realised that it would not be tempted into boycotting school because of the department’s machinations. History, as Fidel Castro said, will vindicate us.

BRIAN ISAACS

Former principal, South Peninsula High School