SOYISO MALITI
Enkululekweni Primary School management has agreed with the Western Cape Education Department’s (WCED) proposal to start “platooning”, a process that will see pupils attend class at different shifts during the day, to ease overcrowding.
The agreement came at a meeting on Wednesday March 16, after weeks of teachers expressing dissatisfaction about the situation and after teachers had threatened to strike.
Lindumzi Fountain, school governing body (SGB) chairman, said when they heard about the planned protest last week, they called it off and started negotiating and decided on platooning when the new school term started.
He said the school management team would discuss the timelines of the process and report back to the SGB.
Millicent Merton, the department’s spokeswoman, said the department commissioned the district’s circuit manager, the district director and senior district officials to meet with the Enkululekweni Primary School SGB and the school management team on Thursday March 17.
She said the WCED had already allocated two teaching posts to the school, effective from April 1, to help ease the overcrowding.
“The school is presently working out a programme to ‘platoon’ next term as a short term solution to the problem,” Ms Merton said.
Last year Northern News reported on the dire availability of toilets at the school with 1 700 pupils forced to queue at just two toilet blocks, with each having five toilets for girls and five for boys.
The scramble often left pupils returning to class late (“Two lavatories for 1 700 pupils”, November 11).
