Parents halt North West school merger
Parents from Kejakile Middle School, where only 26 learners were enrolled last year, have succeeded in halting the school’s merger with another school.
|||Rustenburg - The merger of two schools in North West has been stopped, the North West education department said on Wednesday.
Spokesperson Elias Malindi said North West Education and Sport Development MEC Maphefo Matsemela visited the community of Mofufutso 2, near Delareyville on Tuesday, to assure them that Kejakile Middle School will operate until such time the department of education resumes the merging process.
Last year the Kejakile Middle School had 26 learners who were in Grade 8 and Grade 9 with two teachers and one principal. Fourteen learners were in Grade 9 and 12 learners were in Grade 8.
Several meetings were held between official from the department and community members with a view of merging Kejakile Middle School and Gothata Secondary School.
“At the end of the year the department merged the two schools and provided learners of Mofufutso 2 with the learner transport,” Malindi said.
The department spokesperson said when schools re-opened in January 2016 community members opposed the merger and stopped the children from going to school.
Malindi said community members “blockaded the roads and removed learners from the bus”.
He said those opposed to the merger “did not want their children to wake up early in the morning and travel for a long distance to school”.
Malindi said after the incident, MEC Matsemela instructed officials from the department to halt the merging process of the two schools.
“Learners and the teachers were turned back to Kejakile Middle school in Mofufutso 2 until the department restarted the merging process afresh.”
When Matsemela visited the community she assured community members that the merging of their school had been halted.
The MEC said numbers of learners residing in the area will be verified jointly with the community and if the numbers of are high enough a school will be built.
Matsemela said if it was found that the numbers of learners were low Kejakile Middle school will be merged.
Meanwhile Malindi said the problem of chairs at Mphe-Bana Secondary School in Reagile near Koster was being addressed.
He said 250 more chairs were delivered on February 5, tables have been ordered. The school needs 509 tables and 482 chairs.
Mphe-Bana admitted 1 690 learners, which was more than the school's capacity. School furniture and class room space was enough for the extra numbers of learners enroled.
At least four learners are sharing a desk in some classes. One class had 133 learners, making it difficult for teachers to teach.
It was however not all doom and gloom. On Monday the broken school toilets were fixed.
“The six mobile classrooms for Mphe-Bana have already been procured; we are now still waiting for the manufacturers to deliver them anytime from now. On top of those six mobile class rooms procured, the department has already bought 60 mobile classes.”
“These mobile classes will be distributed across the province to schools which need them most,” Matsemela said.
African News Agency
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