Fleurhof residents threaten protest as 12 pupils denied admission to Florida High School

The community of Fleurhof has threatened to protest outside Florida High School if 12 pupils from the area are not admitted to the school.

A rough start to the year for pupils

The community has been at odds with the Gauteng Department of Education over the placement of a group of pupils from Fleurhof.

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A spokesperson for the community, Selby Leshaba, told The Citizen pupils who have been rejected were going to the Florida High School even though they had not been admitted.

“On Tuesday they told them not to come back to the school but we took them there again today (Wednesday) because where will they go and what will they do at home,” Leshaba said.

Leshaba said parents were forcing the children to go to the school with hopes that they might get admitted.

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“There were 19 of them but this number has gone down. Now I am sitting with 12 children who have no school,” he said.

According to Leshaba the education department had recommended that the pupils go to Die Burger High School. But the parents are reluctant to have their children in that school alleging there are gangsters and the distance of the school from Fleurhof is far.

“There are always police at that school our children will get robbed there why should we subject our children to that,” he said.

Leshaba said there were pupils who did not reside in Fleurhof but had been admitted into Florida High school.

“This is not right because Florida is close to us we should have first preference at least. But we know that there could be issues of money involved,” he said.

The area’s local councilor, Caleb Finn, told The Citizen that the problem in Fleurhof was that there was a shortage of schools.

He said there were at least 9000 households in the area and no high school.

“We have raised these issues with the department and I had even asked for a meeting with them,” Finn said.

According to Finn residents would even have to drive out of Fleurhof to access other public facilities.

The Citizen has reached out to the Gauteng Department of Education for comment. The article will be updated as soon as comment is received.