Closed-schools crisis continues
Third meeting of northern areas parents told of progress, but resolves to continue protest
DESPITE encouraging developments around the education crisis at Port Elizabeth’s embattled northern areas schools, hundreds of angry parents stuck to their guns last night and resolved to continue disrupting education there until their key demands are met.
Parents, members of school governing bodies, educators and other interested parties present at the Sanctor High School meeting in Bethelsdorp took an almost unanimous decision to keep schools closed by keeping their children at home.
This emerged at last night’s third mass meeting on the issue under the auspices of the Northern Areas Education Forum (NAEF).
It has spent the last 17 months fighting to get critical education concerns addressed at the 52 schools it represents. The meeting resolved to continue the disruptions throughout this week and to meet again on Monday when the situation would be reassessed.
Chaired by NAEF chairman and West End Primary School principal, Ronald Matthys, the meeting started on an upbeat note and with expectations of an end to the disruptions from today.
This followed encouraging feedback on the forum’s engagement with the province’s leadership, presented to the meeting by NAEF secretary Richard Draai
Draai assured parents the forum was now “addressing the crisis at the highest level”.
Their engagement with the leadership was at “a great place”, he said. The forum was no longer addressing their concerns with the district education department in Nelson Mandela Bay, but “directly with the premier’s office”.
Highlighting the fact that the northern areas community had “totally lost faith in the Department of Education”, Draai said Bay education officials had been “read the riot act” and that their jobs could be on the line.
His feedback included that schools with severe teacher shortages would “get their teachers by the end of the month”, that regular meetings would be held with the department and representatives from the premier’s office, that another task team had been formed and that “next week the premier [Phumulo Masualle] will come and talk to you”.
Draai also told parents additional classrooms were to be provided at overcrowded schools.
Despite this, furious parents dug in for the second consecutive meeting, saying that they were fed up with empty promises.
One parent said: “It is clear none of our demands [including more teachers] have been addressed. We must . . . keep up the heat and continue with this action until our demands are met.”
