Education department to close four schools in Seshego
Education MEC Polly Boshielo says schools in Seshego have become 'white elephants' as parents choose to send their children to schools in Polokwane.
POLOKWANE – Four schools in Seshego will close after not having met the admission requirements to continue learning and teaching. This is according to education MEC, Polly Boshielo who spoke during the provincial announcement of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination results at The Ranch Resort outside Polokwane on Friday.
She says parents from Seshego opt to place their children at schools in the city, leaving schools in the area as white elephants.
“We have four schools where learners have had to be placed in other schools.
“Why parents would want to punish their children by forcing them into a school far from home is beyond me,” she remarked.
Boshielo added that the learners’ academics are often affected as they are placed in schools where the medium of teaching is a different language than their mother tongue, leaving the learner confused and unable to perform according to standard.
“You take your child, who is Sepedi speaking, to an Afrikaans medium school and expect them to pass.
“The focus from Gr 1 to Gr 3 is teaching learners the language of learning, but how is a child supposed to learn Afrikaans when they can’t even speak their home language properly.
“Issues like these affect the pass rate as a learner who might have been achieving above average now fails because of a language barrier.”
Boshielo says the department will look into engaging with various stakeholders to have the schools converted to training centres and other institutions that will complement education.
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“We have areas that have no infrastructure that are struggling to admit learners as they don’t have space, while there are schools turning into white elephants because of the preference the parents have.
“It is a collective responsibility to ensure that our schools provide quality education but that can’t be possible when there are not enough learners in the schools,” she concluded.
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https://www.citizen.co.za/review-online/528804/video-education-mec-not-bothered-by-calls-for-resignation/
