All Gauteng schools opened on Wednesday for the start of the 2007 school year with a few minor hitches reported, the provincial education department said.
”All our schools opened today [Wednesday],” said spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi. ”From our side we are quite excited that everything went smoothly.”
Lesufi said minor incidents had occurred ”here and there”.
Police were called out to a high school at Bosmont in Johannesburg where teachers, pupils and some parents were protesting against the principal, allegedly over poor exam results.
”The police managed to restore order,” Lesufi said.
In Pretoria, a dispute between a contractor and sub-contractor over payment at a new high school in Lotus Gardens was also resolved.
The sub-contractor had claimed non-payment but the department had paid the contractor, Lesufi said.
”They did not want to hand over the school but they did hand it over.”
Late registrations are still a ”major problem” but statistics will only be available on Wednesday afternoon.
On Tuesday, education provincial minister Angie Motshekga said early figures indicated a 12% increase in Gauteng pupils in 2007. Last year, more than 2,6-million pupils were at schools. — Sapa