164 schools to be closed

“Some had died a natural death”

The Limpopo department of education intends to shut more than 160 schools in 2018.

The province has 3 822 schools.

Provincial MEC for education Ishmael Kgetjepe said yesterday he had established task teams who were working with teacher unions and relevant stakeholders to ensure that the process of rationalisation in terms of Section 33 of the South African Schools Act was going smoothly.

He said the number of schools would be trimmed through closure or mergers if they had very low enrolment, which affected the amount of money received. Schools receive an amount per pupil enrolled. Kgetjepe said these schools were not economically viable as they could not maintain themselves.

“For instance, there is a school with only 13 pupils and two teachers, and such a school would get money only enough to fix door handles or windows and that money would not be enough to do anything further than that.”

He said the teachers at schools that would be closed would be moved to other schools to lessen their load.

“… two teachers working at a school with an enrolment of only 13 pupils would have a heavy workload as they would be expected to teach all subjects. And if they are moved to other schools they get to share the load.”

Kgetjepe said they had already identified 164 schools for closure. A further seven have been identified, but not yet confirmed for closure.

“There are factors that have been taken into account for us to arrive at this decision, among which are the zero percent pupil enrolment that results from relocation of communities to new areas and the loss of pupil enrolments from farm schools due to migration of farm labourers [and] schools that offered streams that were not attractive to the majority of pupils,” he said.

He added there were schools that had died “a natural death”. He said they would list the schools in the provincial gazette and ensure that the decision takes effect “as soon as possible”.

He said 312 schools would be merged with other schools to ensure functionality.

Daniel Mateta, provincial deputy chairman of the National Association of School Governing Bodies, said they viewed the move as a “positive” one.

Attempts to solicit comment from teacher unions drew a blank yesterday.

Department of Basic Education spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said they were aware of the closure. “When schools are empty or pupils too few we merge [them] and close [them] down.”

There is a school with only 13 pupils and two teachers