A Mill Park school built on decades of tradition is re-evaluating some of its customs, after a group of old boys going by the name “Darker shades of the Grey” highlighted elements of the school’s history which, they believe, should be exactly that.
The group of 25 old boys – representing Grey High matriculants from as early as 2004 and who are based all around the country – met former rector Neil Crawford in December in efforts to help transform the school.
The group supplied Crawford with a “transformation working plan” providing guidelines to deal with a “colonial institutional culture that at times marginalises those of nonEuropean descent”.
Other aspects raised in the four-page document included bursaries, the inclusion of noncore academic staff members into the school’s benefits scheme, the change of the feeder schooling system to be more inclusive, as well as issues such as symbols, traditions, uniform, and customs.
Darker Shades of the Grey member Buntu Odolo said while they were pleased the school was looking into the document, he was concerned with the pace at which their concerns were being dealt with.
Grey High rector Christian Erasmus – who has been with the school since early this year – said while the school was grateful for their suggestions and aspects of transformation and diversity were gaining momentum through the newly established sub-committee, not all the points could be adopted.
Odolo said: “After our initial meeting certain things were agreed upon in terms of meeting with the new rector [Erasmus] regarding the plan. In a follow-up phone call we were told we would meet once the newly elected SGB was in place.
“To date neither of these meetings has taken place. We have not received any communication from the principal saying that not all of the suggestions will be adopted.
“In little over three months it will have been a year since the initial meeting and not that much has been done.”
According to the document, “We [Darker shades of the Grey] do foresee this process may take, at most, two years to complete.”
On Friday, Erasmus said, as is the case with all school policy matters, the decision-making powers lay with the school governing body, which is actively looking at the matter, however the process requires time.
“If we are not preparing our boys in a diverse environment we are failing them, as the world and all its economic hubs are diversity hubs obviously we are not going to change everything, as the traditions coincide with the ethos of the school,” Erasmus said.
“But the group did highlight aspects we hadn’t even thought of. A good example is during the trooping of colour parade the Union Jack was present on the school colours, which has now been done away with, and the South African flag was trooped for the first time this year.
“We need to move forward; what good is a tradition if it does not prepare our boys in some way for the world after school? All our boys need to feel happy, secure and comfortable within their surrounds at school and beyond.”
He said the school was looking into ways of embracing all cultures and was grateful for the group’s input, however he was gob-smacked by the notion that bursaries were not distributed equally.
“We have a very extensive bursary programme which is funded by donors who essentially provide the criteria for their own bursaries. So if a donor has a passion for music they might require that pupil also play music,” he said.
“We then look at our applications and the pupils who meet the criteria are then compared and selected. I think misconception comes in because people associate bursary with sport, particularly rugby, and might see a lack of diversity on the field and ask what’s going on at Grey.”
While the school tried to provide opportunities to all deserving pupils, there are departmental policies which state a pupil closest to the school should get preference.