South Africa: Ermelo School Set to Appeal

[Harold Schiffman]

Ermelo School Set to Appeal

24 January 2008
Posted to the web 24 January 2008

By Sue Blaine
Johannesburg

HO Ë RSKOOL Ermelo would get four more teachers so that the 95 pupils
the Mpumalanga education department has forced the school to take on
can be taught in the language of their choice, which is English, the
Mpumalanga education department says.
Despite this, the tussle between the Afrikaans-medium school and the
department is set to continue, with the school's governing body
gearing up to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal against being
forced to turn parallel medium.  "The Pretoria High Court refused us
leave to appeal, but then there is another route to the Supreme Court
of Appeal. One way or another, we will get to the appeal court," the
chairman of the school's governing body, Johan Ernst, said.

The department's push to make the Ermelo school parallel medium was a
politically motivated attempt to "kill" Afrikaans, said Ernst and
Democratic Alliance (DA) arts and culture spokeswoman Desiree van der
Walt yesterday. The DA has taken up the school's cause since the
tussle over the school's language policy started nearly a year ago.
"The provincial government's persistence in forcing through a change
to the school's language policy has on a number of occasions been
exposed as a cynical political game, " said Van der Walt.  The most
important thing for the governing body was that the department
reinstate suspended principal Koos Kruger, but the department has said
Kruger's suspension is not negotiable and will stand until his
disciplinary hearing on January 30.

The fact that the department had access to an abandoned convent in
Ermelo, which was owned by the provincial government but was not being
used, was evidence it was only interested in destroying an
Afrikaans-medium school, Van der Walt said. But department spokesman
Hlahla Ngwenya said the abandoned building was "irrelevant" because
Ermelo High had the capacity to take in more pupils .  "Why should we
negotiate (with the public works department) to use that old school,
and spend money renovating it, when there is space at Ermelo High?" he
said. "Let's get these learners to school now."

http://allafrica.com/stories/200801240124.html


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