Children march over plans to shut 27 schools

INLSA

Pupils carrying an Equal Education banner sing songs during yesterdays education march in the city. Picture: Gareth Smit

Hundreds of children took to the city’s streets on Saturday to march on Parliament and the provincial legislature to voice their unhappiness with proposed plans to close 27 schools in the Western Cape, and to demand their right to equal education.

The march, a joint initiative of Cosatu, Equal Education and the ANC, was attended mostly by youngsters, but also included some parents, as well as members of the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and the Congress of SA Students (Cosas).

Some pupils wore their school uniforms while others carried their school banners, along with posters bearing slogans such as “We oppose the close” and “Fix our schools, don’t close them”.

As marchers appeared divided between the Cosatu group and the Equal Education group, organisers urged them to have “one march, not a two-in-one march”.

Cosatu’s Tony Ehrenreich said at the start that the main issue was around equality in schools.

“It’s about equalising the black and the white schools. The former model C schools are doing well, and we’re saying that if the black schools had the same small classes and resources, they could do well too.”

He said the issue of school closures had been “badly considered”, but that he had held “promising” meetings with the Western Cape leadership this week.

Speaking for Equal Education, Ntshadi Mofokeng told the pupils: “We are standing here in our uniforms today, but one day we want to stand in our doctors’ lab coats, our lawyers’ robes and walk in town in our business suits.”

She said the Education Department could not use underperformance as a reason for closure.

Equal Education handed out flyers at the march, detailing their reasons for opposing the closures. Among them was that, in some instances, pupils’ subject choices would not be accommodated by other schools, their language of instruction would change, and some children would no longer be safe due to gang activity.

At the provincial parliament, neither premier Helen Zille nor education MEC Donald Grant were there to accept the marchers’ memorandum, although it was accepted on Zille’s behalf.

At the national Parliament, the person who was to accept the memorandum was “stuck at the airport”. - Sunday Argus