POLOKWANE – A group of parents are up-in-arms after their children had still not been accommodated at schools in the city by Wednesday.
The parents, who held a meeting at the school hall of Laerskool Pietersburg-Noord on Tuesday, said they were also angry over the way they had been treated and lied to by the department of education.
Some of these parents said a woman from the department had treated them abominably, telling them that her lunch was more important than their little problems, and adding that the education department was not a creche.
All the parents at the meeting said they had submitted the relevant and supporting documents required for enrolment to the specific schools from September 1 last year, and then gave the schools time to do the necessary logistics required for placement to be done.
In November last year the parents were told that there was no space for their children and they approached the Pietersburg circuit office of education for intervention. There they were advised to go back to the schools to complete departmental complaint forms. This was done but to date there had been no feedback to the parents.
Last Monday the parents again convened at the circuit office and were met by the district manager Sima Cairo.
Cairo was responsible for placing learners in schools and he told parents to come back on Wednesday January 14 to allow time for head-counts to be done at schools and allow placements to take place. Parents were then phoned by either the department or the circuit office and were told to bring their children to the schools where they had been placed. Parents were taken for yet another ride as they paid their children’s school fees and even bought the correct uniforms only to be told that their was no space for their children in these schools and the lists their children had been placed on did not come from the department.
The parents went back to the circuit office on Friday January 16. Lerato Tladi saw them and said they should come back later in the afternoon, which they duly did only to be told that Tladi was not available as she was “tired” and they would have to return on Monday. “Everyone is an acting this or an acting that. It’s like Hollywood at the department of education,” one parent commented.
On Monday the parents were told that the person they needed to see was on study leave. The requested to speak to the acting circuit manager were told she was too busy and that even the mayor had to wait for her.
Taking matters into their own hands, the parents stormed into the acting head of department’s (HOD) office announced. The acting HOD then met with four representatives of the parent group. A task team to resolve the problems was formed.
According to the parents the department and the task team had still ignored their requests for their children to be placed at specific schools. Jane Manamela said she lived just a block away from Piet Hugo Primary School and enrolled her son there to be within walking distance of the school and save money by not paying transport. “I was told to place my son in Seshego as there is space, but I do not have the money for transport,” she said. Other parents had similar problems.
Education department spokes-person Paena Galane said the department was aware of the issue and was working on the matter. He said all children had to be placed by Tuesday and that this was the department’s priority.
According to previous news reports, the department planned to build two additional schools in the city, one would have been complete in 2013 and the other in 2014. A source within the municipality said there was a stand in Bendor that had been earmarked for the building of a school. However, no schools have been built. Galane could not be reached to comment on this matter.
Psychologist Juanita Marx said children being kept out of schools could cause some psychological problems in the form of an emotional shortfall, anxiety, distress and even permanent problems with socialising.
