Disruption at Mams primary school strongly condemned

The Gauteng Department of Education is aware of the recent disruptions at Refentse Primary School, which brought distress to learning and teaching last week.

The disruption was caused by parents, the SGB and Sanco members aligned with the school.

The disruptors prevented teachers and the principal from entering the school last Monday, May 20.

Their concerns included:

– A clerk spent some money from parents’ R5 donations (undisclosed amount); and

– The lack of essential resources to run the school.

They demanded an urgent meeting to discuss the accusations with the school principal.

Gauteng Department of Education spokesperson, Steve Mabona, said an urgent meeting was convened with all the stakeholders, where it was agreed that the task team would reconcile the records and provide a report.

He said the allegations surrounding the R5 donations were unfounded as the records of the school’s income and expenditure were documented accordingly.

Mabona said it must be noted that the school is a Section 21 school, having the function to procure its own resources, including consumables such as toilet paper, duplication paper and liquid soap, among others, through the allocation received from the department.

“The department strongly condemns the disruption of schools and urges all stakeholders to use available structures to raise issues of concern and not disrupt schooling,” said Mabona.

He added, “Lost contact time is not easily recovered”.

Furthermore, the SGB was advised to procure their resources henceforth.

The learners and assistant teachers were fortunately allowed entry by the protesters.

Thatohatsi Mohale, Sanco zonal deputy secretary in Mamelodi, said at that time: “No teacher, including the principal, will be allowed on the school premises until we sort out governance and school issues here”.

He said the protesters called on the principal, clerk, and Department of Education officials to be part of the meeting with concerned parents.

Mohale said the teacher assistants looked after the learners while they waited for the officials of the department.

The protesters accused the principal of holding the school to ransom and causing division at the school.

Mohale said Sanco and the SGB were taking drastic steps to disrupt learning at the school, as they are the primary custodians of the school, voted in by the parents of the learners.

“The principal is accused of not allowing teachers to proceed with the SGB programme, and it is alleged that the school lacks various resources like toilet paper, typewriter printing paper and liquid soap, and these are essentials that must be purchased with funds allocated to the school by the department.”

The principal also stands accused of not co-operating with the SGB.

Mohale said the principal’s negative attitude started immediately after the re-election of the current SGB a few months ago.

“She prefers to do things her own way; she expelled a learner from school without consulting the SGB and the parents,” Mahole claimed.

He said other issues at the school mean the teacher’s assistants do much of the work, while the teachers are always absent.

READ MORE: School shutdown, parents demanding urgent meeting

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