Thousands of schools closed

THE government has over the past five years shut down more than 4,500 public schools in the country - and hundreds more are facing closure.

According to a report compiled by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and released in 2007, there were 30,117 operational schools.

But in a report compiled in 2009 the number of schools had declined to 25,827. Only Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal showed an increase in schools.

The most affected schools were in townships and rural areas. Of these schools - some of which are now white elephants - 992 were in Free State and 874 in North West.

The main reason cited for the alarming closures was the decline in pupil numbers as a result of poor performance of township and rural schools. This has sparked migration to better-performing schools in towns and cities.

Ironically, as more schools face closure, the Department of Basic Education is building others, citing shortages.

Sowetan has established that provincial departments of education have earmarked a number of schools for closure.

Provinces expected to close down hundreds of schools this year include Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape.

The Eastern Cape education department has identified more than 500 schools with less than 100 pupils each, and the Northern Cape will shut down 25 primary and secondary schools by March.

Mpumalanga will shut down 14 schools, while the Western Cape is expected to close down nine.

DBE spokesman Panyaza Lesufi said the shutting down of schools was a provincial "prerogative".

He denied that the trend of closing schools was a "national crisis", saying Gauteng was the only province ravaged by abandoned schools.

"Parents are voting to pull their children out of under-performing township schools to better schools in the cities," Lesufi said.

He added that his department was not aware of the number of schools lying idle in the country.

"We don't keep that information here. Once a school is closed we hand it over to the Department of Public Works."

While the Gauteng education department reported a backlog of 120 schools, the province had shut down 46 schools, according to spokesman Charles Phahlane.

"To address space pressures the province has spent R200-million on building 36 new schools," Gauteng education MEC Barbara Creecy said this week.

Eastern Cape education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said managing over 500 "sub-optimal" schools would in the long run be "untenable".

He said the leading cause of pupil migration was the "incessant under-performance by rural schools".

Though Limpopo, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal could not provide details of the state of schools because their "technical staff were still on holidays", Sowetan has established that schools have been closed in those provinces.

In Northern Cape the Gaetsewe district is expected to shut down 25 schools by the end of March.

Nancy Sephiri, a resident in the district, objected to the closing down of Rebogile Primary School.

Rebogile , with a capacity of 300 pupils, has 50 pupils. The school is to be merged with Menyeding Primary School in another village.

"I understand our school has low numbers of learners but losing it out to another village is unfair," Sephiri said.

The North West education department said there were 24 unused schools in the province.

Education spokesman Gershwin Chuenyane said: "The process of closing down schools went smoothly because there was consensus between the department and the community. We have since made alternative arrangements for the affected pupils."

In Mpumalanga, 14 schools in the Mkhondo and Nkomazi municipalities will be shut down to "give fruition" to two new "no-fee" boarding schools.

Department spokesman Jasper Zwane said: "These schools had low learner enrolment."

The Western Cape had shut down three schools for "zero learner enrolment" while nine were closed because they were built on private land.

The province is looking at closing down nine more schools, Paddy Attwell of the provincial government has said.