Five-year-olds join in school merger protests
PUPILS as young as five years old from Phozi Lower Primary in Chalumna staged a protest outside their school yesterday following the provincial education department’s decision to merge their school with another about 5km away.
Since Monday the pupils have been turning away six minibuses provided to transport the pupils to Xhama Lower Primary school.
Phozi Lower Primary School governing body (SGB) chairwoman Bheneka Rhini said the consultation process with the department of education to merge the schools was never concluded last year.
When the Daily Dispatch visited Phozi Primary School about 140 pupils were chanting anti-Xhama primary songs in front of the school gate.
The pupils were joined by their parents who carried umbrellas and brought water and food.
Phozi was originally built in 1971 but was rebuilt in the early 2000s.
It now boasts fullyequipped science and computer laboratories and nine classrooms. Xhama Primary has just five usable classrooms.
“Our children cannot lose all these resources – there has to be a point where the department finds a working solution,” said Rhini.
“We were not aware of the conditions in the other school and we did not complete the process last year.”
The education department has embarked on a plan to rationalise small schools in the province saying it would merge schools with fewer than 135 pupils as this would make it more cost-effective to provide infrastructure.
Despite transport having been made available to Phozi pupils, department of education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said the merger between the two schools was still under way.
Mtima said he had spoken to the district director who said that a “process of alignment” was still under way with regards to the schools and that it was at an “advanced stage”.
When the Daily Dispatch visited Xhama Primary school teachers were meeting and the principal referred all questions to the provincial department of education.