Durban – The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education (DoE) plans to close 255 small and non-viable schools in the 2023/24 financial year and in total 967 schools by 2028.
Durban-Political analyst Professor Bheki Mngomezulu said DoE’s plan to close over 900 schools in the province can be attributed to a failure in service delivery.
The department plans to close 255 small and non-viable schools in the 2023/24 financial year and in total 967 schools by 2028. It said low enrolment meant that schools had to be merged or closed.
Mngomezulu said the decision to close schools was indicative of the department treating the symptoms and not the problem of why so many schools had low enrolment figures.
“These are human rights issues. There is a lack of service delivery in many rural areas and people are being forced to relocate. Dealing with the problems of why people are moving away from these areas and these schools is what is needed,” he said.
The IFP said the department must facilitate community consultations with all the schools impacted by the plan to close over 900 schools.
“MEC (Mbali) Frazer must be led to comprehend the importance of her current responsibility of safeguarding the future of millions of learners. Public participation and consultation cannot be reduced to merely making information public. It is therefore disappointing to witness government making pronouncements – without details of how public participation will occur,” the party said in a statement.
They said they are deeply concerned, “as closing down these schools will force hundreds – if not thousands – of learners to walk long distances to school”.
“In the same vein, this will also make it challenging for parents, especially in rural areas, who will need to travel long distances to attend parents’ meetings or to assess the child’s performance and attend school governing body meetings.
“The IFP is further concerned that the bulk of these 900 schools earmarked for closure are rural schools.”
The department on Thursday issued a statement saying it was focusing on schools that have low learner enrolment and where quality of teaching and learning was affected.
It said the Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards regulations in public schools, Section 5, states that a school with enrolment of fewer than 135 learners in primary schools and fewer than 200 learners in secondary schools, does not meet the minimum standards.
However, the province has deviated from this and had resolved to focus on schools which have fewer that 50 in primary schools and fewer than 100 in secondary schools as not meeting the minimum requirements of norms and standards.
This process excludes special schools, schools of specialisation and technical schools, the department said.
“This points to the fact that the department is not ‘trigger happy’ to ‘close’ schools as it has relaxed the minimum requirements of schools which can be deemed as viable,” said the department’s Nkosinathi Ngcobo.
“Mergers and closures of schools is a standard practice that occurs when schools are identified as non-viable and too costly to operate. There are 3 000 schools nationwide that have been identified as non-viable.”
THE MERCURY
