Salt Rock school in crisis

Six Sizani Combined School employees will lose their jobs if the school cannot raise R25 000 a month going forward.

Principal Ntombenhle July said the school, situated in Foxhill, will be losing about R250 000 a year since the school became a no-fee school in April.

“The school fees we collected helped us to pay for the five staff (three teachers and two librarians) and half of the caretaker’s salary.

“Unfortunately this is their last month at work. We need at least R25 000 to pay all six,” said July.

The retrenchments will mean that the school libraries will have to be closed and classrooms will be overcrowded, with the grade two class increasing to 90 pupils in one class.

There are a total of 856 children attending the school.

The school is being turned into a ‘no-fee school’ after the school applied to be changed from quintile four to quintile three.

The quintile system was introduced with the national Norms and Standards Act in 1998. It was meant to rank schools according to their infrastructure but is widely criticized for being an ineffective and outdated system.

The previous ranking put the school at the same level as Umhlali Preparatory and disqualified it from having a state feeding scheme.

Also read: Thousands to lose their jobs at Tongaat Hulett

Now that the ranking has been lowered an unforeseen consequence is that it can no longer charge school fees.

To raise funds for the school Ballito residents Megan Allan and Paul Sparks and former Sizani principal Thula Zondi have opened a non-profit organisation: ‘Sizani Dream Trust’.

“The initial idea for the trust was to raise funds to maintain the school, but now that we have this crisis in hand, we are focusing on raising the R25000 a month to pay these workers,” said Allan.

She said they hoped someone or a company would adopt one or more of the teachers and pay them, a minimum of R5000 a month.

“It is not a lot of money to work for, but we need any sort of help that might be available to save the school from this crisis. Even if there is someone who is willing to come in and volunteer his or her time at the library, just so that it is always open for the pupils,” she said.

Education department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said the department supplies teachers based on the number of children at the school.

“Before we change the school into a ‘no fee’ school, we check various things, including the employment rate and poverty in that area and the location of the school. This does not stop the school from having a good management that can plan certain projects and raise funds for the school,” said Mahlambi.

For more information on how to help the school you can visit the school’s website www.sizaniprimaryschool.co.za, click on the Sizani’s Dream tab and the banking details will be there.

You can also call Allan at 083 797 1980.

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