Northcliff High’s practices compared to apartheid
NORTHCLIFF – A high school's concession card system is put in the spotlight after a schoolgirl is required to produce one in order to wear a religious scarf.
A Muslim Northcliff High School girl was required to produce a concession card in order to wear a religious headscarf with her school uniform.
This caused an uproar when a woman expressed her anger on social media about the matter, and the school’s rules were compared to the dompas which black South Africans were required to carry during apartheid.
The school released a statement on 5 June with regards to concession cards.
According to the statement, concession cards were issued in situations where parents made requests for a change to the school uniform such as wearing a headscarf, growing beards and wearing sneakers for medical reasons. Northcliff High explained that concession cards were meant to ensure law and order at school.
Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi contacted the school in an effort to intervene in the matter. He posted on social media that the school had agreed to withdraw the cards.
The school has just agreed to withdraw the cards unconditionally https://t.co/aCWawOQiSU
— Panyaza Lesufi (@Lesufi) June 5, 2017
To ensure that a schoolchild is not reprimanded for uniform infringement, the school issues them with a concession card so that any teacher querying their different attire can see the uniform change is done with permission from the school’s management.
A diabetic child also needs to produce a concession card in order to be granted permission to eat during class time to ensure their blood sugar levels don’t drop. In a situation where a schoolchild needs to grow their hair, shave or style it in a manner which is not in line with school policy, permission also needs to be granted.
It was revealed that the woman who initially posted on social media expressing her disapproval of the school’s concession card system, is not the girl’s parent. Natasha Moosa, who is her parent, posted that she had not given the woman consent to do so or to reveal her daughter’s identity.
The school has since been instructed by the Department of Education not to provide the media with further comment on the matter.
