Department battling to close down ‘non-viable’ schools

THE Department of Education is “stuck” with a number of non-viable schools it is struggling to close down.

Non-viable schools are those with a low number of pupils. The process of closing them down is called the Transformation of the Schooling System (TSS).

For a school to be declared non-viable, it must have fewer than 150 pupils if it’s a primary school, and fewer than 200 pupils if it’s a high school. KwaZulu-Natal education department officials recently told members of the Education Portfolio Committee that they could not close down some of the schools because of a shortfall of around R100million to fund the pupil transport programme.

The officials said that the shortfall would make it difficult to transport the pupils to another school should their current one be closed down.

Another issue raised was that some community members were sentimental about some schools in their area, which made it difficult to close them without the co-operation of the community.

KZN education department curriculum manager Dr Barney Mthembu said TSS was being implemented, although there were still challenges.

The issue of non-viable schools has been a topical issue in the recent past, with members of the legislature expressing concerns.

“Some of these schools are so small that it does not make sense to appoint more teachers. You find that there is one teacher who teaches many subjects, and those pupils are not learning anything because it’s just not possible for one teacher to know everything,” said one ANC MPL.

The DA’s spokesperson on education, MPL Rishigen Viranna, said the TSS was one of the most important programmes in the department.

He said there were about 80 schools that needed to be closed down, and he knew of only three that had been closed.

“It is being held back because there is no budget, but keeping the children at these schools is doing them more harm that good.

“There is one primary school in the Camperdown area that has about 80 pupils from grades 1 to 7, and it has two teachers. How is it possible that one teacher can teach so many subjects in so many different grades?” he asked.

IFP MPL and spokesperson on education Thembeni Madlopha-Mthethwa said they were against closing schools just because they were not “viable”.

“Many schools were built under the hardship of apartheid, many were built by community members themselves,” she said.

“The focus cannot be on closing the schools, the department should be devising strategies on how to improve the performance of those schools.”