Race row school ‘not co-operating’

ALMOST a week after a photo showing a segregated classroom at Laerskool Schweizer-Reneke went viral on social media, it is still unclear who had separated the children according to race.

While the teacher who had taken the picture was suspended last week after an outcry, the North West Department of Education said it was not getting information from the school on who was responsible for separating the pupils.

The suspended teacher allegedly sent the picture to a WhatsApp group to show parents that the first day of school was going well.

Spokesperson Freddy Sepeng said yesterday that his department had suspended the teacher for taking the picture as the classroom was a place to teach and not to take pictures.

“There is evidence that she had taken the picture and she did admit that she had taken it. However, what we are trying to understand is who separated the children,” said Sepeng.

“Maybe she (the teacher) was the person who separated the children or maybe it was someone else,” he said.

Education MEC Sello Lehari and other officials were planning to go to the school this week to get to the bottom of the issue.

Meanwhile, the wishes of the protesters who had gathered at the school the day after the picture went vital and asked that the suspended teacher be replaced with a black one may not be granted.

Sepeng said the department was not making decisions on the basis of people’s emotions. “We are still looking for a teacher and there are procedures to be followed.”

He said one of the teachers at the school was temporarily assisting by teaching the affected class.