DA neglecting school

THE SACP in the Western Cape has witnessed first-hand conditions which learners in the province have to endure on a day-to-day basis. The SACP’s site visit to Philippi High School has further confirmed the complete neglect of working-class schools by the Western Cape Education Department; the appalling conditions detailed below will speak for themselves.

Last Friday the SACP also witnessed yet another protest against neo-liberal negligence in the province; learners at Philippi High School mobilised an organic mass action against empty promises and shoddy services by the WCED. The learners, yearning for their basic human rights, were later confronted by police, who fired stun grenades in an attempt to disperse the peaceful protest.

The SACP in the province condemns this act of aggression and the use of stun grenades against our young learners.

The SACP in the province also learnt on Friday that for the past eight years, Philippi High School has been pleading with the provincial department for aid towards the betterment of the school’s facilities. The steel prefab classrooms accommodate over 650 learners, with over 56 learners in one class.

Just recently Cape Town weather services reported conditions exceeding 42ºC, literally transforming the steel prefabs into ovens. These deplorable conditions, despite being raised on numerous occasions, have been completely ignored by the DA provincial government.

The conditions at Philippi High School, and the recent proclamations by Premier Helen Zille contained in the provincial government’s “strategic plan” for 2014 to 2019, point to massive contradictions in the Western Cape. While learners in working-class areas like Philippi are neglected by the provincial government and face the gauntlet of the triple crisis, the premier directs government apparatus and funds towards implementing “e-learning” in middle-class schools.

The stark reality in this tragedy is that schools in the Western Cape require proper servicing and attention – not broadband internet.

As the SACP in the province, we applaud and welcome the opening of Kasselsvlei Primary School by Deputy Minister of Education Comrade Enver Surty. We further call upon the Ministry of Education to intervene in the Philippi High School incident as well as all those working-class schools abandoned by the DA provincial government, through the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative. Barry James Mitchell