Education plunges into chaos as pupils sit on buckets, share question papers.
A RADICAL plan by the Eastern Cape department of education to overhaul the education system has left hundreds of pupils without teachers and more than 150 schools in Transkei battling crammed classrooms.
More than 150 schools have implemented the department’s rationalisation plan, which seeks to streamline education by re-aligning
schools.
In line with the plan, thousands of pupils in Grades 8 and 9 were moved from junior secondary schools into high schools.
Education MEC Mandla Makupula was last year quoted as saying as many as 310 dysfunctional and badly managed schools, which contributed to the Eastern Cape’s poor results, would be closed.
However, a Daily Dispatch investigation found that no provision had been made for extra classrooms and many of the newly realigned schools had become overcrowded.
“I cannot say it is fine when children have not been taught, but there is nothing we can do, the country is changing and therefore changes must be effected.
“In the process of doing things, there are children who are going to be guinea pigs of a process of correcting.”
South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) and National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) in the Eastern Cape lambasted the department for “putting the cart before a horse”.
Sadtu provincial secretary Mncekeleli Ndongeni accused the department of “wreaking havoc” in schools “because they are not the ones who will be targets of vicious attacks when results were bad”.
Naptosa provincial chairman Sithembiso Malusi put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Makupula and Ngonzo.
“The buck stops with him and on the administration, the head of department should be made to account for the problems,” he said.
Malusi said while the union supported the realignment of schools, the department should have provided basic education resources to ensure proper and effective teaching in the affected schools.
“That’s the mandate of the state. We have raised these problems. Chances of these pupils passing are very few,” he added. —
Schools learning to fail
A RADICAL plan by the Eastern Cape department of education to overhaul the education system has left hundreds of pupils without teachers and more than 150 schools in Transkei battling crammed classrooms.
More than 150 schools have implemented the department’s rationalisation plan, which seeks to streamline education by re-aligning
schools.
In line with the plan, thousands of pupils in Grades 8 and 9 were moved from junior secondary schools into high schools.
Education MEC Mandla Makupula was last year quoted as saying as many as 310 dysfunctional and badly managed schools, which contributed to the Eastern Cape’s poor results, would be closed.
However, a Daily Dispatch investigation found that no provision had been made for extra classrooms and many of the newly realigned schools had become overcrowded.
“I cannot say it is fine when children have not been taught, but there is nothing we can do, the country is changing and therefore changes must be effected.
“In the process of doing things, there are children who are going to be guinea pigs of a process of correcting.”
South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) and National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) in the Eastern Cape lambasted the department for “putting the cart before a horse”.
Sadtu provincial secretary Mncekeleli Ndongeni accused the department of “wreaking havoc” in schools “because they are not the ones who will be targets of vicious attacks when results were bad”.
Naptosa provincial chairman Sithembiso Malusi put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Makupula and Ngonzo.
“The buck stops with him and on the administration, the head of department should be made to account for the problems,” he said.
Malusi said while the union supported the realignment of schools, the department should have provided basic education resources to ensure proper and effective teaching in the affected schools.
“That’s the mandate of the state. We have raised these problems. Chances of these pupils passing are very few,” he added. —
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