Parents shut down ‘crowded’ school
Illegal protest march stopped by police but day’s tuition is lost
PARENTS of pupils from Mseki Primary School forced a shutdown of teaching yesterday morning before marching with their children to Gugulethu police station to protest against alleged overcrowding at the school.
The pupils missed a day of school as a result.
The illegal march was stopped by the police, who sent the group back to the school because they had no permit.
Noxolo Xesha, a mother of a Grade 7 pupil, showed the Cape Argus a picture of her child’s class, which appeared to be so crowded that the pupils and teacher were unable to move around. “As you can see for yourself, classes are overcrowded. This Grade 7 class has 67 pupils and they don’t get the necessary attention from the teacher,” said the mother.
She said that on hot days it was difficult for the pupils to concentrate, adding that her child always came home complaining about the situation in her class.
“The children even copy each other’s work, and the teacher can’t stop it because he or she can’t move around.”
Phunyezwa Sonqishe, one of the leaders of the march, said parents had met the Western Cape Education Department to try to resolve the issue, but “nothing is happening”.
Sonqishe said they told the department that extra classrooms were needed, but when these were not forthcoming, they decided to shut down the school for the day.
“This is the action we decided to take, and we will continue, without damaging the school,” she said.
The department, she said, had told them to look for other schools to enrol their children, but said this was not viable as the transport costs would be too high. Sonqishe said their next step was to go to Education MEC Debbie Schäfer and to Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga.
WCED spokesperson Millicent Merton said the school had enrolled 35 more pupils this year compared to last year and, as a result, some of the classrooms were crowded. She said the district office would assist the school with teaching strategies to manage the large classes.
Merton said officials from the department’s infrastructure directorate were expected to meet the school governing body and school management team yesterday. “We call on parents not to disrupt teaching and learning in our schools,” said Merton.
Police spokesperson FC van Wyk confirmed the peaceful march of pupils, parents and teachers of the school to the Gugulethu police station.
He said the police explained to the crowd how to go about obtaining a permit to march legally.