ON DECEMBER 29, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Dispatch, Premier Phumulo Masualle announced the closure of 2 Weeks after declaring this monumental overhaul, the department of education has yet to share any further details with the public. We do not yet know which schools will close, on what time frame, and most importantly, how this will affect learners in the province.
Without elaboration by the department, it is not apparent that the closing of these small or very small schools will yield an overall improvement in the education system. There is considerable evidence at the primary level that attending a community school is better for learner outcomes than attending a similar school far away from home.
While closing small schools may ease the financial and administrative burden on the department, it may impose a far heavier cost on learners and their quality of education. Moreover, it may not significantly cut costs given the rural context and the need for increased scholar transport and relocation of teachers. Thousands of learners across the province already must walk over an hour to get to school, a number that will grow exponentially with the closure of these schools.
As the Dispatch reported in April last year, several schools have even had to resort to court to force the department to provide urgent scholar transport to pupils - an ominous indicator of the current state of affairs. If scholar transport is adequately provided, the department will incur a vast new budgetary and administrative burden. If it is not provided, we stand to see a stark increase in school absenteeism and dropouts.
Furthermore, blanket closure based on current enrolment is rife with potential dangers. For instance, Luthuthu Primary School near Mthatha had a flourishing school community until severe inadequacies in security resulted in theft and even the murder of a learner. Enrolment subsequently dropped precipitously; it is now slated for closure based on its size, but ignoring the context of current enrolment. Investing in the school's security would likely be far more cost-effective and beneficial to learners than closing the school entirely and sending learners dozens of kilometres away.
The only provisional plan provided by the premier, the construction of four new boarding schools to accommodate learners, is highly problematic at best. It removes one of the most fundamental choices of a parent to decide whether or not to raise their child at home.
Even worse, what if the child the department is sending to a boarding school is the head of a household - a scenario all too common in the Eastern Cape? That child will be faced with the choice of receiving an education or abandoning her/his family entirely.
The Eastern Cape department of education has engaged in no such public process; documents found in the depths of its website only reveal vague and veiled hints at the need to, at some point, close small schools. Such a monumental decision ought not to be taken lightly.
We call for the immediate release of the department's school closure plans, and a healthy and constructive engagement with the public.
Nothing less than the future of education in the province is at stake.
David Carel is deputy head of Equal Education's King William's Town office
Reveal plan to shut schools!
Without elaboration by the department, it is not apparent that the closing of these small or very small schools will yield an overall improvement in the education system. There is considerable evidence at the primary level that attending a community school is better for learner outcomes than attending a similar school far away from home.
While closing small schools may ease the financial and administrative burden on the department, it may impose a far heavier cost on learners and their quality of education. Moreover, it may not significantly cut costs given the rural context and the need for increased scholar transport and relocation of teachers. Thousands of learners across the province already must walk over an hour to get to school, a number that will grow exponentially with the closure of these schools.
As the Dispatch reported in April last year, several schools have even had to resort to court to force the department to provide urgent scholar transport to pupils - an ominous indicator of the current state of affairs. If scholar transport is adequately provided, the department will incur a vast new budgetary and administrative burden. If it is not provided, we stand to see a stark increase in school absenteeism and dropouts.
Furthermore, blanket closure based on current enrolment is rife with potential dangers. For instance, Luthuthu Primary School near Mthatha had a flourishing school community until severe inadequacies in security resulted in theft and even the murder of a learner. Enrolment subsequently dropped precipitously; it is now slated for closure based on its size, but ignoring the context of current enrolment. Investing in the school's security would likely be far more cost-effective and beneficial to learners than closing the school entirely and sending learners dozens of kilometres away.
The only provisional plan provided by the premier, the construction of four new boarding schools to accommodate learners, is highly problematic at best. It removes one of the most fundamental choices of a parent to decide whether or not to raise their child at home.
Even worse, what if the child the department is sending to a boarding school is the head of a household - a scenario all too common in the Eastern Cape? That child will be faced with the choice of receiving an education or abandoning her/his family entirely.
The Eastern Cape department of education has engaged in no such public process; documents found in the depths of its website only reveal vague and veiled hints at the need to, at some point, close small schools. Such a monumental decision ought not to be taken lightly.
We call for the immediate release of the department's school closure plans, and a healthy and constructive engagement with the public.
Nothing less than the future of education in the province is at stake.
David Carel is deputy head of Equal Education's King William's Town office
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