Parents, teachers and pupils staged a protest on Tuesday against the admission policy of the Kismet Combined Secondary school in Colridge near Vryburg in the North West.
South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) regional secretary Joe Molipa said the school had increased school fees by 37% in order to deny poor pupils enrolment at the school.
He said school fees were increased from R1 300 to R1 700 to make sure that pupils from poor backgrounds were excluded.
Twenty-five pupils from Monoto Moshweu informal settlement who sought admission at the school, their parents and Sadtu officials, were protesting at the school on Tuesday — demanding it admit pupils from the settlement, which is located near the Colridge township of Vryburg.
”According to the current school policy, school fees are determined by the school governing body in consultation with the teachers, the school principal and the parents of the pupils in the school,” Malipa said.
He charged that only 12 parents were present at a meeting at which it was decided that school fees must be increased to R1 700.
In 2002 the school had a 91,3% matric pass rate followed by 100% in 2003, 94,12% in 2004, 93,33% in 2005, 100% in 2006 and 90,3% last year.
Molipa said the school was historically designated for the exclusive use by South Africans of Indian origin.
”Today some of the pupils are from as far [away] as Schweizer-Reneke.”
He said it was important to highlight the plight of pupils and their poor parents who were seeking good schools for their children.
According to Molipa, the principal of Kismet had decided to have only one class of pupils for this year in each grade from one to 12, and would not allow any more pupils to be registered.
”This constitutes a conscious act of excluding black students from a poor working-class background from gaining access to a school that has a track record of producing good results especially in matric,” Molipa said.
Sadtu called upon the school not to use fee increases to deny the poor access to quality education, he said.
Last year the school requested the government to assist them with four additional classrooms.
”These classrooms have since been provided by government but the classrooms are now standing empty and are not being utilised by the school at the moment,” he said.
North West education department spokesperson Charles Raseala said the department was aware of the situation at Kismet and had instructed the area office in Vryburg to attend to the matter.
”Officials from the department are meeting with school management to resolve the issue,” he said.
The school principal, who identified herself as Mrs Boshoff, declined to comment on the matter and referred all inquiries to the education department. – Sapa