Parents of 18 Grade 12 pupils at a Port Alfred school who take Afrikaans Home Language are alarmed at a suggestion for their children to attend schools in Makhanda and Alexandria. They’ve rejected the proposal, saying such a move would have a negative impact on their children. But the Department of Education says moving the children to other schools is only one of the options being investigated and that nothing has been finalised.
The bombshell comes as the youngsters, most of them from Station Hill, settle into week 6 of their crucial final year of school. With no high school in Station Hill, the closest no-fee public school is Nomzamo Secondary School in Nemato, just under a kilometre from the Station Hill/ Wharf Street intersection. The department says the move is being considered because Nomzamo Secondary School has no teacher qualified to teach Afrikaans.
In a letter delivered to Nomzamo’s principal on Tuesday, the children’s parents have demanded that the department appoints a teacher for Grade 12 HL with immediate effect and that a catch-up plan be implemented to make up for the lost classroom time. The school governing body (SGB) and the department’s district director are copied in.
“We the parents… reject any decision or suggestion to move our children out of Nomzamo Secondary School, as this would negatively impact them academically, socially and emotionally,” say the parents in the letter.
The parents have agreed for their comments to be published, but concerned that their children may be further singled out, they asked not to be named.
One of the factors reportedly contributing to the department’s looking for solutions for Grade 12 HL is that five 2024 matrics failed that subject (and, as a result, their matric).
“To me this is a hasty decision. You cannot move matriculants in their final year,” said one. “Nobody mentions any breakdown or analysis of the subject so that we can see where the previous matriculants falter so that it could be rectified.
“We have a right to disagree because our children are uncomfortable about this move. Can we once assist them and challenge the department that we are willing to take the risk for our children to continue as they have started this year. [Any changes or moves] can be implemented next year.
“For now the [challenge]… is the Afrikaans,” said another. “We don’t know what we will encounter after the move because we don’t know what other challenges the other schools have.”
“We have just recently bought our kids the Nomzano Grade 12 school uniform. As ridiculous as it may sound we may have yet to buy another set of school uniform of the new schools,” another parent said.
“Right now they are busy with their extra classes. So now instead of extra classes after school they will be in the bus from 2pn to 4pm instead of studying,” said another.
Parents said the suggestion had not been properly thought through.
“It is more like a suggestion made by a desperate person who just wants this problem at any cost away from his/her hands and does not care of its impact to the lives of both the parents and the affected students.
“Finding a qualified Afrikaans Home Language teacher is a better solution to the problem. We should press the Department of Education to provide Nomzamo Secondary School with an Afrikaans Home Language teacher and the problem will be solved, permanently.”
The Department of Education in the province says that is indeed one of the options it is investigating. Pleading for parents to allow the department to complete its investigation, spokesperson Malli Mtima said several multidisciplinary working teams were due to report back on their findings on Friday.
“The department is very aware of the seriousness of lost teaching time,” Mtima said. “For that reason, we want to resolve this quickly so the learners don’t lose any more teaching time.”
He said questions being invstigated by the task teams were:
- Can the Afrikaans-medium schools in Makhanda and Alexandria (Mary Waters Secondary School and Alexandria High School) accommodate the 18 learners?
- Is there cost effective transport available to ferry the children to and from those towns?
- How would the matter of school uniforms be resolved, should the children move: would they retain their existing (Nomzamo) uniforms?
Mtima said recruiting teachers who are qualified to teach Afrikaans, particularly home language Afrikaans, was a challenge.
“We first advertise within the Sarah Baartman District. If that fails, we have to cast the net broader – first across the province, then even nationally.”
He said the Western Cape and Mpumalanga had high3r complements of qualified Afrikaans home-language teachers.
The department has definitely not closed the door to looking for an educator,” Mtima said. “But because we have previously struggled to secure suitably qualified teachers, we have been consulting with those two schools, as well as the Department of Transport, to explore other options.
“We would really beg the community to alow our investigating teams time to report back so that decisions can be made with complete information,” Mtima said. He said a reportback to the department had been scheduled for Friday.
“Most important is that we find a properly qualified Afrikans teacher,” Mtima said. “If anyone knows of such a person, please ask them to drop off their CV with [Nomzamo Principal] Andile Mdana.
An invitation from TOTT for the principal to comment wasn’t responded to; however, Talk of the Town understands that he will be meeting with the parents this afternoon (Thursday February 27) at 5pm.
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, February 27, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
