The National Association of School Governing Bodies (NASGB) has called on the Department of Basic Education and parents to scrutinise schools’ policies. This comes after Pretoria High School for Girls pupils held a protest at the school on Monday over the hair policy at the school.The school reportedly instructed black pupils to straighten their hair‚ and the girls also alleged that the school had barred them from speaking in vernacular.Matakanye Matakanya‚ the general secretary of the NASGB‚ said the association did not expect this kind of practice to take place at schools in a democratic South Africa.“We condemn this kind of behaviour. The school may be run by people who have not broken up with the past‚” Matakanya said.“We call on the department of education to scrutinise the policies of these schools. This incident did not happen in Pretoria only‚ but in Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein.”He said the issue at the Pretoria school ran deeper than just the hair policy. “There is an attitude directed to racial divide. That has to come to an end.”Matakanya said the schools implicated in racism allegations need to formulate policies that are in line with the Constitution and the Schools Act.“We have to empower our school governing bodies to ensure their policies are in line with the Constitution‚” Matakanya said.He also called on parents to “scrutinise” the schools’ policies. “We have a programme that has five pillars. One of those is capacity-building of SGBs. We have to see how we can capacitate our members in schools and see how best we can help.”Education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said: “We will review the laws that govern education management and governance to ensure that they are consistent with the Schools Act and the Constitution‚ and ensure that implementation is done in a manner that learners will not be discriminated against”. – TMG Digital..