The roads leading to Laerskool Danie Malan in Pretoria North were cordoned off earlier this week as police remained on high alert outside the gates as some disgruntled parents wanted to know about the location of their children.
- A mother who protested outside Laerskool Danie Malan in Pretoria says she is worried her daughter is missing school.
- She has not been placed in any school despite applying on time and submitting all required documentation.
- The protesting parents lamented flaws in the application system and alleged racial discrimination against English-speaking black students.
A mother who protested outside Laerskool, Danie Malan, this week says she is concerned that her daughter, who was supposed to enroll in first grade, is missing out on school.
The mother, who asked to remain anonymous, said the school in Pretoria North was among five she applied to, shortly after Gauteng’s online applications opened in August last year.
She later learned that her daughter was still among the pupils awaiting placement, despite schools reopening in the inland provinces on Wednesday.
The roads leading to the school were cordoned off and police remained on high alert outside its gates following a protest on Wednesday.
This after parents of black students claimed their children were denied placements at the school.
The father said:
They have five Afrikaans classrooms and one English class per grade. They can accommodate English-speaking students, but they don’t want to. That’s the problem with Laerskool Danie Malan. Let’s be honest, how many black people take Afrikaans as their first language? Not many. No matter what, the majority will always be white in that school.
She added that because she could not afford to enroll her son in a private school, she would be homeschooled until she was placed.
“I had to sit her down and tell her she’s not going to school yet. I have certain things that I have bought as a lunch box, a lunch box.
“She’s looking forward to learning to read. I printed out worksheets so she feels like she’s learning something. How long do I have to lie to her?”
READ | ‘Racism must end, we want equality’, students’ parents say, but Laerskool Danie Malan denies the claims
The EFF’s Bongani Ramontja told News24 that the party received complaints from disgruntled parents who sought their help.
He said:
We defended the issue of accusations of location and racism. Parents told us that children who do not speak Afrikaans as their first language were denied admission on the basis that they spoke English as their first language.
Gauteng education spokesman Steve Mabona said complaints of racism against the school were nothing new.
On the placements, he added that the department would build more schools in the area to accommodate the students.
“Last year, we had the same situation where parents took to the streets calling for an end to racism. To some extent, we had to accommodate what we could in terms of the capacity of the school.
“We can recognize that we need more schools in that area. We sent our teams to assure parents that their children would be placed,” Mabona said.
In a statement on Thursday, school governance body (SGB) chairman Danie Malan, Karel van Zyl, said claims of racism made by “political opportunists” were “unfounded and vengeful accusations”.
added:
The management of the school rejects these accusations with the contempt it deserves.
Van Zyl said the area’s language demographic was predominantly Afrikaans and Setswana and not English, according to the previous census.
He denied claims that there were only 15 students in each Afrikaans class and that English students were packed “like sardines” into classrooms.
Van Zyl said education department officials had been at the school and were aware of the “real facts.”
He added that the school was not responsible for the placement of first graders and said that the responsibility for building schools lies with the Department of Basic Education.
He said:
The SGB and the school management have been negotiating for three years with the Department of Education to find alternatives and have repeatedly been informed that the school is full and cannot accommodate more students.
Van Zyl said that the SGB had identified suitable premises for the construction of a satellite school and that negotiations were ongoing.
“The SGB remains committed to finding a long-term solution to the shortage of [space] in the Pretoria North area, but not at the expense or risk of the safety of our students.”
He added that the school also had to increase security on the premises to protect students and staff after threats of violence.
“School management finds it unacceptable for politically motivated protesters to intimidate our students and try to disrupt our curriculum. A school is a place where children should feel safe. Unfortunately, some use it as a political football field “.
