Group
Mchunu
KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Senzo Mchunu’s policy on tardiness is illegal.
So charges the NGO Equal Education, whose attorney has written a letter to Mchunu, requesting that he stop making statements which encourage schools to lock out and send home pupils who arrive after the school bell has sounded.
The letter says that while the organisation recognises late coming is a serious problem which impacts on teaching time, it does not believe Mchunu’s approach is the solution.
While conceding that some pupils have no valid reason for their tardiness, it has asked him to consider those who travel long distances via expensive and unreliable transport, and has offered to help devise creative ways to curb lateness.
“…Section 5(b) of the South African Schools Act states that any person who prevents a learner, who is subject to compulsory attendance, from attending school is guilty of an offence. The act of locking late coming learners out of schools, in effect, prevents learners from attending school. This is illegal, criminal and a clear violation of section 29 of the (SA) constitution,” the letter says.
The organisation says in the letter that, in its experience, punitive measures are not only unlawful but counterproductive and ineffective.
Yesterday Equal Education spokeswoman, Yoliswa Dwane, said that an amicable way to get Mchunu to rethink his firm stand was being sought, and the intention was to find a compromise.
Earlier this year the organisation instituted legal action against Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga to compel her to adopt a policy for norms and standards for school infrastructure.
Mchunu has in the past stood firm in the face of opposition to his lock-out directive to principals.
He has also said that “nowhere in the constitution is any child guaranteed even if you come late you are still fine… Late-coming is a different matter, associated with ill-discipline”.
Yesterday, Mchunu said that he was willing to listen to alternatives. However, asked if his strict policy was illegal, he responded that he had been to a school in Ndumo where 572 children arrived late on one morning, and their matric pass rate was 13 percent. “Ask yourself is that legal or not legal… Is this in line with the pursuit of quality education?”
Mchunu asked what would happen if he didn’t care about the number of minutes of teaching and learning time tardy pupils lost.
With regards to the dangers posed to children, especially younger ones, who were locked out of the gates and left to find their own way home, Mchunu said that in those cases principals “must apply their minds”.
