Four farm schools in the Fort Beaufort district have launched an urgent court challenge to the provincial education department’s decision to close them down.
If successful, the challenge may well have a far wider reach.
The Centre for Child Law and the school governing bodies of the four schools, also want the Grahamstown High Court to interdict the provincial education department as well as national Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga from closing any other schools until they meet stringent legal requirements set out in the SA Schools Act.
These include consultation with affected parents and school governing bodies and an obligation to provide schools with written plans for how the closure or merger of public schools would take place.
The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) – which is representing the CCL and the four farm schools, Huntley Glen, Belmont, Belvedere and Lynedoch – yesterday said the principals were informed in November last year that the schools would be closed at the end of the first term this year. There was no consultation, said the LRC.
The department simply informed the schools that their pupils would have to be sent to a boarding school in Adelaide some 80km away.
The LRC warned that the closure of farm schools in remote and rural communities was happening across the country, often forcing families to send children as young as seven years old to live in understaffed, poorly supervised hostel schools. In many instances, the state failed to ensure access to hostels or scholar transport for affected pupils.
“Parents in the community are deeply concerned about the negative effects of school closures on learners,” said the LRC.
Yandiswa Nqangela, who has two children at Huntley Glen farm school said in an affidavit many pupils would find a move to a hostel extremely difficult after having experienced nothing but rural farm life. “Parents are concerned about the general safety of hostels and the increased risks to learners that will accompany less supervision.”
Nqangela said they were also concerned about supervision at the hostel and the provision of adequate food. The department announced in December it intended closing 2000 “unviable” schools, but failed to submit written plans setting out how affected pupils would be provided with an education.
The school governing bodies of the four farm schools and the CCL are asking the court to interdict the national and the provincial basic education departments from closing the four farm schools or any other school until they had properly complied with legal requirements.
The schools have applied for the matter to be argued on May 12 in the Grahamstown High Court.
Provincial education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani yesterday said they had not yet been served with the court papers.
Schools in legal survival fight
If successful, the challenge may well have a far wider reach.
The Centre for Child Law and the school governing bodies of the four schools, also want the Grahamstown High Court to interdict the provincial education department as well as national Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga from closing any other schools until they meet stringent legal requirements set out in the SA Schools Act.
These include consultation with affected parents and school governing bodies and an obligation to provide schools with written plans for how the closure or merger of public schools would take place.
The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) – which is representing the CCL and the four farm schools, Huntley Glen, Belmont, Belvedere and Lynedoch – yesterday said the principals were informed in November last year that the schools would be closed at the end of the first term this year. There was no consultation, said the LRC.
The department simply informed the schools that their pupils would have to be sent to a boarding school in Adelaide some 80km away.
The LRC warned that the closure of farm schools in remote and rural communities was happening across the country, often forcing families to send children as young as seven years old to live in understaffed, poorly supervised hostel schools. In many instances, the state failed to ensure access to hostels or scholar transport for affected pupils.
“Parents in the community are deeply concerned about the negative effects of school closures on learners,” said the LRC.
Yandiswa Nqangela, who has two children at Huntley Glen farm school said in an affidavit many pupils would find a move to a hostel extremely difficult after having experienced nothing but rural farm life. “Parents are concerned about the general safety of hostels and the increased risks to learners that will accompany less supervision.”
Nqangela said they were also concerned about supervision at the hostel and the provision of adequate food. The department announced in December it intended closing 2000 “unviable” schools, but failed to submit written plans setting out how affected pupils would be provided with an education.
The school governing bodies of the four farm schools and the CCL are asking the court to interdict the national and the provincial basic education departments from closing the four farm schools or any other school until they had properly complied with legal requirements.
The schools have applied for the matter to be argued on May 12 in the Grahamstown High Court.
Provincial education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani yesterday said they had not yet been served with the court papers.
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