JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Wednesday
SCORES of Mpumalanga schools still practise petty apartheid, denying their black pupils equal education and access to science labs or sports facilities and forcing them to use separate buses on school trips.
Some of the more “hardcore racist” schools also refuse to offer non-Afrikaans speakers mathematics, commerce or other science subjects on higher grade.
Education MEC Craig Padayachee said a preliminary government investigation into alleged discrimination at previous Afrikaans or Model-C schools uncovered prima facie evidence that at least 25 formerly Afrikaans or whites-only schools still systematically discriminated against pupils from other ethnic or racial backgrounds.
Some of the more extreme discrimination includes different disciplinary codes for Afrikaans and other pupils, with black or English speaking pupils often suspended or expelled for offences that earn Afrikaans pupils a mere written warning.
Padayachee said scores of schools also use a disproportionate amount of their budgets on Afrikaans pupils, with black or English speaking children forced to rely on one teacher for every 60 pupils, while Afrikaans pupils in the same schools had one teacher per 15 pupils.
“It has become clear that the magnitude of the abuse is far more serious than initially [expected]. It has also become clear that the levels of discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance need further in-depth investigation,” said Padayachee.
An existing provincial task team on racism in schools will therefore, he said, intensify investigations, including unannounced classroom visits, interviews with school governing bodies, parents, pupils and school management teams, as well as teachers.
Teachers or managers found guilty of discrimination will be referred for training and counselling by the SA Human Rights Commission, said Padayachee.
Common forms of discrimination were detected at many of the schools investigated, including segregated assemblies and lunch breaks, segregated parent / teacher meetings, less exam preparation for non-Afrikaans pupils, refusal to offer popular township sports such as soccer and the deliberate failure to inform parents that they can apply for exemption for paying school fees on economic grounds.
Padayachee stressed the abuses only occurred in an estimated 2 percent of the province’s 2 200 public schools and that racial integration was progressing well at the rest of the schools. – African Eye News Service