POLOKWANE – Some of the 25 schools in Limpopo that were identified to merge have refused.
This was according to a report about the merger by the education department in January.
“The department continues to engage the communities involved. We are not leaving them behind. There are ongoing talks, but in some cases political intervention is needed,” education senior manager of communications, Dr Naledzani Rasila, said, adding that the schools were not viable the way things stood at the moment.
Rasila further said the merger process was running smoothly except for a few challenges, including denial by traditional leaders that their schools were dysfunctional and needed to merge with other communities’ schools to make them viable.
He said so far, 40 schools had merged at the request of the communities in which they existed and 21 schools were closed due to mergers as per the Education Management Infor-mation System.
“These structures are not being utilised and the process to hand them back to the department of public works is at advanced stage. These schools may then be used for other activities to the benefit of the communities,” he said.
• The education department’s budget speech that was due to be delivered last week was postponed due to the untimely and tragic death of public services and administration minister, Collins Chabane.
The new date for the speech was announced on Wednesday and will take place on March 31.
3 Limpopo schools score zero for matric
