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Protesting parents and pupils force school shutdown over 18 fired teachers

Protesting parents and pupils at an Umlazi high school‚ south of Durban‚ brought classes to standstill on Monday.

The protestors at Umlazi Comtech High voiced their dissatisfaction over the KwaZulu-Natal education department’s disbanding of the governing body and the dismissal of 18 teachers‚ some of whom are not qualified to teach.

 Some parents had reportedly burnt rubbish‚ logs and wire on the road leading up to the school.

They claimed the department had taken a unilateral decision.

Department spokesman Kwazi Mthethwa said a task team had been deployed to the school to probe issues plaguing the school.

“There was a school governing body that was in place. The department picked up that some of them were not even parents of learners but they were part of the governing body.

“This was not a legitimate structure but just a group of people who were hijacking the school‚ so to speak.”

The department then took a decision to disband the governing body and set up an interim body comprising senior department officials.

“We wanted to put up a legitimate governing body... The task team discovered that the previous governing body had appointed 18 teachers — some of whom are not even qualified.

“According to the task team’s report there are enough teachers to service the school. These extra teachers affect school fees. This was the mess that was created by an illegitimate governing body. We decided to dismiss them because we don’t employ extra people for nothing‚” said Mthethwa.

“The interim body will step down once a proper governing body has been installed.”

Mthethwa said the department was committed to resolving the stand-off at the school as soon as possible to allow learning and teaching to take place.

“It is exam time and we don’t want disruptions to our pupils as custodians of the school‚” he added.

 

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