Fury over teachers’ return

Parents of Eldos school pupils vow to hound out seven who accused them of being racist

PARENTS and the community of Eldorado Park have vowed to intensify a protest against the return of seven teachers who allegedly absconded, leaving pupils stranded for more than a year.

The school governing body (SGB) and parents yesterday protested outside the school, opposing the Gauteng Department of Education’s decision to bring back the teachers.

They said the department was imposing the teachers on them, knowing very well that they had caused problems at the school and made “false accusations of racism and intimidation”.

Parents said the group also alleged that the principal threatened them with a knife. “We do not want them here. They did not care about our children when they absconded.

“Why do they want to come back now? They never told anyone when they left the school to report to the district office.

“We have received a mandate from parents that they do not want those teachers back,” said SGB treasurer Glenwill Sweetland.

He said the teachers should be subjected to disciplinary processes. “As far as we are concerned, they absconded for months from November 2017. They drew a salary while reporting to the district office and not for doing their job, teaching our children.”

Gauteng Education Department spokesperson Steve Mabona said it was concerned about the protest.

He said some community members were refusing to accept the seven back at the school.

“The said educators were chased out of the school last year and an investigation was conducted and cleared all of any wrongdoing. This matter was also a subject for the Human Rights Commission.

“The principal, school governing body and the school community at large were requested to kindly receive the seven teachers, who were meant to return to their posts on January 9. However, they were barred from entering the school premises,” Mabona said.

Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said the department held several consultative meetings with all relevant stakeholders.

“Eldorado Park Secondary School obtained 85.4% pass rate in the 2018 NSC examinations. Therefore, we urge the principal and SGB to ensure that the teachers are welcomed at the school, and that their work conditions are favourable.

“We further appeal to the community not to disrupt schooling,” said Lesufi.

One of the protesters, Keith Duarte, said they were not willing to accept the teachers back and would intensify the protest. “Our children’s future is more important to us. We were accused of being racists. How will these teachers work with a community they accused of being racist?

“The department must bring us new teachers. As we speak, our school is short of seven teachers. Though teaching and learning continues, at least seven classes across all grades do not have a teacher because these ones absconded,” Duarte added.