Swapna Prabhakaran
The managing director of Crawford Preparatory School in Benmore, Graham Crawford, has apologised for offending parents when he called the multiracial institution “the last bastion of European culture”.
The remark was made at a parent/ teacher meeting at the elite private school, which caters specifically to “academically advanced” children.
Crawford said this week that it had been a “tongue-in-cheek” remark, and was not meant to have any overture of racism. “I was talking about the fact that we offer ballet, music, drama and art in our school, at a time when arts are no longer being promoted by government. We are very proud of our European heritage as well as of our African heritage.”
He said the school reflects all the influences of the diverse student body. But one parent called it “the whitest school my kids have ever been to anywhere in the world”.
He said that although he had not noticed anything overtly racist in the school, he thought Crawford was “creating a closed- loop system for white kids”.
The school’s public relations officer, Denise Golden, insisted that Crawford’s statement had been misinterpreted.
She said the offending remark had been made in an attempt to allay parents’ fears about the declining standards of education in South Africa.
“We are doing our best to maintain First World standards,” Golden said. “We are going out of our way to make sure that parents don’t feel the need to emigrate because of the fear that we are becoming a banana republic.
“What Crawford was saying was that we would remain firm and keep up our standards, remain as a yardstick, no matter what may happen in the rest of the country.
“We want parents to know that their children would get the same education here as they would if they emigrated or sent their children to schools in New Zealand or Australia or England.”