State 'bullies' packed school

The Gauteng education department is said to have bullied a primary school into admitting extra pupils even though the school was full.

The governing body of Laërskool Suikerbos, in Vereeniging, in the Vaal Triangle, claimed that the principal, who cannot be named, was threatened with disciplinary action if he did not comply with the department's order.

On Monday, education district officials arrived at the school with 14 children and their parents and reportedly ordered the principal to accommodate them or face protest disruptions at his school.

The comments of district officials were recorded by governing body chairman Mark McIntyre in a letter he sent to the department.

Three months ago the Constitutional Court made a landmark ruling on school governing bodies' power to determine the capacity of their schools.

The court ruled that disputes between governing bodies, which determined admission policies, and the education department must be resolved in a spirit of "cooperative governance".

The judgment followed a dispute between Rivonia Primary School's governing body and the Gauteng education department after the school was forced by the department to admit a pupil though it had no vacancies.

McIntyre said that though the school was willing to help accommodate pupils unable to find a place because there were insufficient schools , it wanted the department to negotiate with it, not dictate to it .

"We feel bullied and steam rollered," he said.

Parents pay the salaries of 10 of the 25 teachers at the school. The extra teachers were employed to keep class sizes low.

"Our main worry is quality education and the interests of pupils," said McIntyre.

The school was told it must take extra pupils but that no class should have more than 40 pupils.

Responding to the governing body's letter, an education department official said: "Please make life easy for the school by adhering to the laws of the country."

In correspondence with the department, the governing body said it was concerned that:

A 1:40 teacher-to-pupil ratio was being forced on it, which was not in the "interest of the child";

The results of the annual national assessment tests showed that standards were falling because of forced admissions;

Some of the pupils the school was forced to accept could not speak English or Afrikaans; and

The classrooms could not safely accommodate 40 children. The governing body declared the school full last year but the department told it that it must take in 36 more pupils.

"We invited officials four times to determine capacity based on the size of the classrooms and how many children could be safely accommodated," McIntyre said.

He said he was hoping that the department and the governing body could negotiate to prevent disputes in future.

The department said the school's admission policy was unlawful in that pupils were discriminated against on the basis of language.

The school wants to admit only pupils who speak either English or Afrikaans. Its teachers are not qualified to teach in other languages.

Melanie Buys, a spokesman for the Federation of Governing Bodies of SA Schools, said the department did whatever it wanted "irrespective of a school's policy".

"The government did not build schools for 10 years in any area. Now they force functional schools to take in more and more pupils instead of attending to dysfunctional schools," Buys said.

Educational lawyer Mike Wilter said the Constitutional Court's ruling in the Rivonia Primary School case was relevant because "it found that everything done had to be in the best interest of the pupils".

He said school governing bodies had significant powers but could be overruled by provincial or national legislation.

Gauteng education spokesman Phumla Sekhonyane admitted that the department had been overwhelmed by the high number of pupils looking for admission.

"There is pressure [caused by] late registrations and we have appealed to principals to take on more learners. We have emphasised that this should not exceed the norms and standards for public school infrastructure.

"It is not department policy to threaten principals. If the principal has the name of the official who threatened him, we will investigate."