- Hon. members the Transformation of Schools Report was first given in the 2004-2009 legislature period and was never implemented.
- Only 1 school – Truro Primary was stopped by the Minority Front’s interventions from being sold to a private religious group and rather made an extension of Demorosa Special School to cater for the overflow of special needs learners.
- This 2023 report is welcomed as it focusses on rural and semi-rural schools which is good for a few learning and training centres which should be based on distances and catchment area population and these should be handed to Higher Learning. Polytechs should be explored.
- However, more thought is required, with community participation in terms of re-purposing other schools for completely different government or private entities, as KZN has to consider the effect on the Provincial Equitable Share impacts.
- Sales of a few redundant schools to the private sector will be required to kick-start economic growth points and give much-needed employment.
- Furthermore, in the urban areas more schools need to be included in phase one e.g.: in Chatsworth there are closed schools e.g. Pinewood, which the department was supposed to turn into an Autism school in 2014-2019 and what has come out of this?
- Moreover, what happens to the movement of staff? Are trade-unions on board?
- The time is right to have imbizo’s in all areas and rather get input from local communities throughout the Province to transform schools to what is required for purposes arising from the opportunities the areas present.
- These are the recommendations of the Minority Front.
- Thank you.
DETAILS
Debated by: Hon. Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi
Minority Front Leader (KZN Legislature)
Date: Thursday 22 June 2023
Time: 10:00 to 17:00
Word Count: 270 Words