Western Cape education minister Cameron Dugmore and his officials had acted like schoolyard bullies in the Mikro primary-school affair, the Cape High Court heard on Tuesday.
Mikro’s governing body is asking the court to overturn the provincial department of education’s instruction to create an English-medium class at the school for a group of grade-one children.
The school has thus far taught in Afrikaans only.
Advocate Jan Heunis, for the school, told the court that the role of the province in the matter had been that of a provocateur, wanting to get its way at all costs even if this meant the law had to be broken.
He said the Schools Act allows a department head to overrule a school’s language policy if there is a demand for classes in another language from at least 40 pupils, and this was the clause the department had sought to rely on.
However, only 21 pupils had enrolled for the class, and there was no explanation in the documents before the court of what had happened to the other 19 pupils.
In addition, there was room for the children at nearby De Kuilen primary, a dual-medium school.
Single-medium schools are protected by the education clause in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, he said.
Earlier, Heunis read from an affidavit by the children’s teacher at Mikro, Christe Loubser, who said about three-quarters of her charges were, in fact, Afrikaans-speaking.
”They speak Afrikaans to each other in class and outside at break, and have difficulty in following my teaching in English. I foresee this fact causing ongoing problems in the learners’ academic progress,” she said.
Heunis said he concedes pupils have a right to be educated in their language of choice, but this has led to the anomalous situation in which an Afrikaans-medium school is required to offer classes in English to Afrikaans-speaking pupils.
”With respect, that must come into the equation. It must be put on the scales when you weigh what you should do in this very difficult case,” he told Judge Wilfred Thring. — Sapa