Admissions ruling today
The 55 pupils who want to be admitted to a school that only accommodates Afrikaans speakers will know today if they can attend it and be taught in English.
Hoërskool Overvaal in Vereeniging and the Gauteng education department were embroiled in a court battle on Thursday and Friday, with the school insisting it cannot admit them due to capacity and resource constraints.
The school also contended that the department could not enforce an action which was against the school’s policy.
The school’s advocate, Albert Lamey, argued in the High Court in Pretoria that the school was not geared for dual-medium instruction, and that the department had not determined the school’s capacity before making this placement decision.
“That is apart from language policy. It is of grave concern that procedures have been managed in this fashion … No wonder it’s chaos, placing pupils and then the problem is thrown onto the governing body,” he said.
Advocate Kumbirai Toma, for the department, said the school did have the capacity to take the 55 pupils as it had admitted 20 more Afrikaans-speaking pupils after the department had instructed it on December 5 to reserve space for the English-speaking pupils.
The school has 23 classrooms, but only 17 were used for lessons. The other six were converted into specialised centres, when the department had approved the conversion of only two.
“Capacity is not an issue. There are five classrooms that can be used,” Toma said.
He also argued that the demographics of the community had changed and it made sense for the school to adapt to this. “The admission criteria says pupils who live in a 5km radius of the school and wish to be admitted can be, despite the language policy.”
The school should not be concerned about how the English-speaking pupils would be taught, as that was for the department to resolve, he said.
The school has asked the court to set aside the department’s instruction to admit the 55 pupils. Judge Bill Prinsloo will hand down judgment today. – ANA