AfriForum submits application against Department of Education in KZN over school in Nkandla

Since the beginning of the year, the civil rights organisation AfriForum has been involved in supporting the Nkungumathe community with legal help in their battle to have a school built for the community – a school for which they have been waiting for 20 years.

After consecutive visits to and consultations with the Nkungumathe community, an application was submitted in which, among others, the following are requested:

• That the Khuba Secondary School be built immediately;
• That the standard of education currently provided to the Nkandla community be declared inconsistent with Article 29 (1) of the Constitution;
• That remedial steps be taken to address the educational crisis (including that all learners be provided with textbooks);
• That regular feedback be given to the Court on the progress of the above-mentioned steps; and
• That sufficient teachers be appointed.

The community applied in 1996 for a high school to be built there. The application was approved, after which the Khuba Secondary School was registered in 2007 and received an EMIS (Education Management Information System) number. Since then, the Department of Education tried to pacify the community with promises that the school would indeed be built. It was only after AfriForum had enquired about the progress of the project that the department of Education replied that they renounce their twenty years’ promise and would no longer be building the school.

“The standard of education required in terms of Article 29(1) of the Constitution is by no means maintained. The teacher to learner ratio in many classes is between 1:85 and even 1:121. In most cases, ten learners have to share one textbook, while most learners have to sit on the floor during their lessons,” says Carien Bloem, Project Coordinator for Education at AfriForum.

“We have no other choice but to take legal action against the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education. The circumstances under which learners receive instruction at the school as well as the quality of education leave much to be desired. During our visits we determined that learners sometimes have to walk for between two and three hours to reach their nearest school and returning home. They have to walk through fields where they sometimes encounter venomous snakes, wade through rivers that can sweep them along during rainy seasons, as well as climb over a river bank to reach the school,” Bloem says.

“The Khuba Secondary School will take care of most of the challenges that are currently experienced in terms of education, while offering learners the opportunity to receive quality education in a dignified manner,” Bloem adds. “In light of South Africa’s record-high youth unemployment figure (67,4% for young people younger than 25 years in the second quarter of 2017), it is unacceptable that young people are let down by the Department of Education, with almost no chance of access to a sustainable, professional career. It not only casts a shadow over the futures of these learners, but over the country as a whole.”

• Also see photos of AfriForum’s visit to the Nkungumathe community and a video by Forum News at https://forumnuus.co.za/afriforum-reik-uit-na-nkandla-gemeenskap.