Members of a closely knit rural community have vowed to keep their school open despite it being shut down by a provincial education department in December.
Two assistant teachers, Cassidy Willemse and Chante Booysen, have volunteered to teach all pupils from grades one to six at Seekoegat VGK Primary School in Prince Albert, Central Karoo, after it was declared “unviable” by the Western Cape education department.
The impoverished parents of the 29 pupils attending the school have dug their heels in, insisting they will not accede to the department’s request to move their children to Teske Gedenk Primary School in Beaufort West, some 90km away.
The pupils from isolated farms attending Seekoegat Primary, which is 115 year old, live in the two dormitories and return home on a weekly basis because some live about 50km away and the roads are mostly only accessible by 4x4 vehicles.
On Tuesday, Marie Sukers, an African Christian Democratic Party MP, took up the community’s fight in parliament, making an impassioned plea for it to intervene and reopen the school.
“At least temporary teaching, supervision and care at the school should continue while discussion takes place with the department on the future of the school,” she said.
The department said that last year the school had only 19 pupils and one teacher, whose contract ended on December 31.
But Sukers said the closing of the school “highlights the one-size-fits-all approach adopted by government departments and, in this case, the Western Cape education department”.
“The rights of children to be heard and their views considered in political processes that affect them has been ignored. There has been no consultation with children throughout the entire process.”
Closing this school is not in the interests of this community which would like the school re-opened.
— Marie Sukers, ACDP MP
Said Sukers: “Parents will only see their children once a month if they were sent to Beaufort West. In Seekoegat, they were closer.
“Closing this school is not in the interests of this community which would like the school reopened.”
She said there was no public participation when the decision to close the school was taken.
“The district official brought the document for the chairperson of the governing body to sign, which was done in a bakkie on the side of the road. The community did not even receive feedback on concerns they raised.”
She said a week after she met the head of department on February 7 to appeal for the school to be reopened, officials came to the school to remove the department’s property.
“This was after I received assurances from the head of department that they will keep the equipment at the school. The officials even threatened the caretaker that they would bring the police.”
She said “our people deal with arrogant officials when it comes to processes. It’s either arrogance or insensitivity.”
If we allow those children to go to a hostel 90km away, we are giving them up and they will live a life as orphans.
— Pastor Willie Coetzee
Pastor Willie Coetzee from Grace Church International in Oudtshoorn, who has also been assisting community members to keep the school open, told Sunday Times Daily that the pupils should not be allowed to grow up as orphans. “If we allow those children to go to a hostel 90km away, we are giving them up and they will live a life as orphans. The parents are very close to their children and if they fall ill at Seekoegat, they can come with their donkey carts and bicycles and visit them.”
Willemse, a former pupil of the school, said he knew the children’s circumstances as he also grew up on a farm.
“I love working with them and I am teaching them because I know how important it is for them to have an education. It does not matter to us that the school is closed because we will still continue to teach.”
MPs attending the zoom session also came out strongly in support of the petition from Sukers.
The EFF’s Dr Sophie Thembekwayo said there needed to be further engagements on the closure of Seekoegat Primary, adding: “I feel it’s very unfair to close the school as not enough research was done.”
I feel it’s very unfair to close the school as not enough research was done.
— Sophie Thembekwayo, EFF
Commenting on the rules and regulations mentioned by the department on the decision to close the school, the Freedom Front’s Wynand Boshoff asked whether Seekoegat or the rules were wrong.
“I want to put it that the rules are wrong. Our rules should be much more flexible to be able to accommodate a community like this.
“It’s nonsensical to say if you have 20 pupils per teacher in Seekoegat, it means you have to have 20 pupils per teacher in each and every school in the province. The situation at Seekoegat is fundamentally different and not comparable.”
Archie Lewis, acting head of department in the Western Cape education department, told parliament that when one teacher, who is also the principal, has to teach two phases (grades one to six), “it’s impossible to provide quality education to those children”.
He said the department was closing schools every year and had closed three last year.
“The department is looking, within the context of the regulations of 2013, at all primary schools with less than 135 pupils.
“We are developing a provincial plan for closing those schools over the next five to six years because it’s unviable. Our pupils can get a better education at better resourced schools.”
He said there was no provision in the SA Schools’ Act for the department to consult pupils when closing down schools.
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