ALBERTON-Two Afrikaans primary schools in Alberton, namely Laerskool President Steyn and Laerskool Orion, appeared on the list of schools in which the Gauteng Department of Education wanted to implement parallel-medium teaching.
Headmaster of Laerskool President Steyn, Pieter le Roux says this decision just reiterates that the constitution needs to be respected and laws should be followed.
He says no one from the education department has even been to the school to establish its utilisation capacity.
Sitting with 200 grade one learners this year, and not even being able to have an assembly with all the learners’ present, he stresses the school cannot accommodate more learners.
“We have empathy with the education needs of learners, but we have to continue with effective education and if we increase our numbers, this will no longer be possible,” says le Roux.
School Governing Bodies appealed against the bilingual teaching order, and on May 27, the Johannesburg High Court ruled in favour of SGB’s.
The Gauteng Education Department wanted to force some schools to teach in two languages.
A number of school governing bodies brought an urgent application challenging the department’s plans to change 124 single-medium schools, many of them Afrikaans, to parallel-medium.
The High Court ruled that school governing bodies have the last say on which language pupils are taught in and that the department must respect the federation of governing bodies’ policies and decisions.
The department came back arguing that it is merely trying to address overcrowding, but the governing bodies argue this is illegal.
Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said he’s saddened by the High Court’s decision giving school governing bodies the authority to decide on a preferred language, and said this will not help in eradicating racism in South Africa.
The department’s Phumla Sekhonyane said the focus is not limited to Afrikaans-medium schools.
“We cannot build new schools when there are schools that are under-utilised or schools that do not offer certain languages. This is not just exclusive to Afrikaans.”
The Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (Fedsas) has described the department’s plans as a narrow approach to unity.
CEO Paul Colditz says, “It’s got absolutely nothing to do with race, it’s got to do with legal, proper procedures being followed by those entrusted with the policy making decisions.”
Lesufi says, “There is no way under my leadership that I would destroy Afrikaans. Actually, I’ll be the first person to defend Afrikaans. But what I am saying is, where the school is not fully utilised, let’s open it up.”
