Schools turn away desperate mum

AS most children get adjusted to their new school grade, sport and homework in the second week of school, a Glenwood mother is desperate to get her son enrolled into a school.

Natasha Pretorius (not her real name), has been trying to get her son into a local school for nearly six months. “I am in this predicament because I have an interdict and protection order against my son’s father. The court asked me to move him from his former school in Queensburgh to protect him from his father. There is a warrant of arrest out for his dad who is on the run,” she said.

“This is a special case. We did not want to move but had to for our safety. I went to the Acton Road Education Department about finding a school for my son and followed their instructions. I phoned a local school in September (three months ahead) and went to enrol him so he could start at the beginning of the school year but the school refused to take him, saying they were too full,” she said.

The single mother has been forced to place her 9-year-old son in a Day Care facility, which, besides being an exorbitant expense, has had a demoralising affect on her son who should be in Grade 4, and has to spend his days with children years younger than himself. She said this was exacerbating the situation with his father for which he was already receiving counselling. “He is now at a stage where he believes he is useless and no school wants to accept him,” she said.

Pretorius said she visited the department’s Acton Road offices almost daily until they closed over the festive season and was back there in January when they opened. “Every time I get to speak to Mr Mthembu he informs me that I will have to phone him back as he says he is still pleading with the principals of the schools in the area as they are all full.”

She said she went back on Tuesday morning to see Mthembu who is handling her case and explained that she wouldn’t leave until she got a letter for one of the schools in the area. “I finally got a letter for a good school nearby and I was over the moon, but the principal said the letter meant nothing to him because Mr Mthembu has been sending parents to the school knowing their classes were full.”

The distressed mother returned to the Education Department and then received a letter for a school she had hoped to initially enrol her son in which she applied for in October 2013. “I was so thankful, but according to the principal again I was not welcome as the school is full.”

Rejected and frustrated, Pretorius says the Education Department has let her and her child down and is appealing to a school to to assist her. “This is a terrible situation I really don’t know what to do anymore! My son and I are getting so frustrated it is unacceptable that a child’s education is being put on hold because of the system that fails us. It is affecting my health and my permanent job, as I have to keep taking time off to go back to the department as they do not answer the telephones,” she said.

The Berea Mail has attempted to get comment from the Education Department, but no response had been received at the time of going to press.