Transformation must be reality at schools

Schools have not even been open a week and already there are allegations of racial segregation at Schweizer-Reneke Primary School in the North West province and at King Edward High School in Matatiele. The first spark was lit when a photograph of black preschoolers seated apart from white classmates in Schweizer-Reneke circulated and the flames grew when photographs of classes in Matatiele appeared. We cannot blame the department of education for what appears to be racially segregated seating at SchweizerReneke Primary School and King Edward High School.

The responsibility for that lies on the shoulders of the individual teachers concerned and, by extension, their school principals.

As the SA Human Rights Commission has said of this issue, schools are for teaching and learning “not only a formal curriculum but also fundamental value systems”.

Transformation must not remain a word to be bandied about, it must become a lived reality.

Black parents at the schools concerned have spoken of the hurt and exclusion they felt on seeing pictures of their children seated apart from their white classmates.

The images conveyed the message to these parents that their children needed separate tuition, with the implication that black pupils were not capable enough to sit next to their white classmates.

There is a view that children should be taught in their home language for their foundation phase years.

However, in a country like SA which has 11 national languages, the goal of integration is an equally pressing imperative. Young children generally mingle more freely than adults.

They also make and change friends quickly. By placing Xhosa, English or Afrikaans children next to each other, they are indeed likely to learn more than a few words of each other’s language and that can only be encouraged.

Does the existing curriculum for training teachers include sections on cultural sensitivity, inclusive learning and a transformed classroom? If not, it is high time it did.