Learners protest alleged racism at another east school
The chairman of the school governing body at St Mary’s Diocesan School for Girls said they have released a plan that involves listening to learners, former learners, teachers and parents and giving them a chance to tell their stories.
Learners at the St Mary’s Diocesan School for Girls in Hillcrest, Pretoria held a protest on Thursday against alleged racism and discrimination at the school.
Dressed in black, learners were singing and chanting outside the school, accusing it of being racist, homophobic and xenophobic.
According to one of the protesting learners, they have been trying to raise their concerns to the school management for “years” without any response.
“Teachers call us names like ‘chimpanzee’ in class when we try to speak out about how we feel,” learner who wished to remain anonymous told Rekord.
“It is normal for white learners to treat us like that too.”
Another learner alleged there was “a lot of” body shaming at the school.
“When we wear short things, we are told that we should not wear them while white girls can wear what they like,” a matric learner said.
“We are taught in history class that we must not take things personally when they talk about apartheid. We are taught we must ‘get over’ apartheid.”
The learners also called for more black teachers and other staff members to be appointed at the school.
Another learner, who wished to remain anonymous, said she got the same marks as a white classmate but was treated differently by a teacher.
“The approach from our teacher was not the same. The white learner was advised to work harder and improve her work while I was told that I am a stupid girl who will never change.
“Because we are black, our teachers assume we can’t get high marks without cheating.”
The learners delivered a memorandum to the school management with detailed demands.
Demands included that the school hair policy be changed and that there must be “zero tolerance” towards racial, homophobic and or xenophobic remarks made to learners.
“Black people cannot stop racism because we are not the oppressors. White people are the oppressors and they can stop racism, if we talk about racism; but if oppressors are not even there to hear and understand our pain, there will never be change,” said the learner.
“We want them to engage with us so that we can learn from each other.”
A parent at the school, who wanted to remain anonymous, agreed learners were not treated equally.
She said the school should also consider revising its language policy.
“There is only one teacher for Sepedi subject for the whole school, which shows that African languages are not being prioritised,” the parent said.
The chairman of the school governing body (SGB) Allan Kannemeyer confirmed they received the memorandum.
“The allegations are not new,” said Kannemeyer.
“We had a similar incident last year concerning a certain teacher.”
“We have, however, released a plan that involves listening to learners, former learners, teachers and parents and giving them a chance to tell their stories.”
He said that the hair policy should be a reflection of cultural diversity at the school.
“The important thing is that everybody must have a sense of belonging and ownership in our school. And if improving policies related to hair, dress can help give our learners a sense of belonging, then that is what we are going to do,” he said.
He said the board has done an independent investigation and promised to do better to improve the system they have in place to deal with such instances in future.
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