IT IS an accepted fact that education is an important factor in the development of this country, or any other country.

Education is central to development because it empowers people. It is also a powerful "equaliser" because it opens doors to all citizens to lift themselves out of poverty.

In this regard, it is our expectation that every stakeholder should commit to creating the suitable environment.

Unfortunately, developments in certain schools, especially in most black areas, are raising questions about the commitment of certain role players to ensuring that all South Africans - regardless of their social, political and economic standing - do get access to education.

The goings-on at Meadowlands High School is a case in point. The school, like many other under-performing schools, is under the Gauteng education department's Secondary School Improving Programme. This is a programme aimed at improving matric results at under-performing schools. The school achieved a pass rate of just above 50percent last year.

Currently the school's principal, Moss Senye, has been suspended because he is facing a criminal charge of assaulting a pupil. The court case has not gone any further because whenever he is expected to appear Senye has reported ill and produced a medical certificate.

Now the department argues that maybe Senye should be permanently relieved of his duties due to ill-health.

The community - including the school governing body, some parents and pupils - is up in arms.

Rather than lose Senye, there would rather be no schooling, says the community.

Matric pupils at this school - which does not have a history of producing good matric results - will be sitting for the final examinations in five weeks' time.

Frankly, this should be of concern to all the parties involved in Senye's case.

They need to ask whether - as an educator - he has contributed towards ensuring that pupils are sufficiently prepared for the examinations.

As for the Gauteng department of education, it is time it grabbed the bull by its horns and ensured that no one - including those members of the community who claim to have the democratic right to choose who must teach their children - undermines its political mandate to ensure that pupils get the kind of education to which they are entitled.

The department needs to show all involved that it is in fact criminal to try to deprive pupils of their constitutional right to learn.