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A high court ruling gave the Gauteng department of education the final say on school admissions.
School governing bodies (SGBs) have warned that despite a high court ruling giving the Gauteng department of education the final say on school admissions, it didn’t mean it’s a free-for-all.
Kathy Callaghan, secretary of the school governing body association Governors’ Alliance, said the ruling must be considered alongside other existing legislation.
The SGB of a Sandton primary school took the department to court in February, claiming that department officials had forcefully admitted a Grade 1 pupil despite the school insisting it had reached full capacity.
But the department said it had the final say on the matter, and if pupil admissions – particularly at former Model C schools – were left solely to governing bodies to manage, “racially discriminatory historical privileges (that exist as a result of) apartheid, would be (further entrenched) under the new democratic order”.
In his judgment this week, Johannesburg High Court Judge Boissie Mbha ruled that “the power to determine the maximum capacity of a public school in Gauteng province vests in the Gauteng Department of Education and not in the school governing body”.
Callaghan said the ruling did not necessarily mean that all schools would suddenly be able to increase the number of pupils they could admit.
“The MEC will have to look at other legislation (such as) building regulations and fire laws,” she said.
Officially, the teacher/pupil ratio set by the Department of Basic Education is 40 pupils to one teacher in primary schools and 35 pupils to one teacher in high schools.
Callaghan said not all schools could follow this though.
She said things such as the school’s size, the number of teachers and other staff, and safety regulations would also have to be considered.
Professor Raj Mestry, of the University of Johannesburg’s Department of Education Leadership and Management, welcomed the judgment.
“It happens frequently that former Model C schools work in a way that excludes children, whether on the basis of race or language,” he said.
Mestry said well-resourced schools had to be “more sensitive” when dealing with accommodating pupils.
Department spokesman Charles Phahlane said the department had to deal with the province’s rapid population growth.
He said it “places huge strain on the available resources, and the rate of building new schools cannot cope with the rate of in-migration”. – The Star