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INLSA<\/p>\n
School principals are in a quandary over KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Senzo Mchunus unexpected announcement of the abandonment of all school trips for the rest of the year, following the death of 10 pupils at the weekend.<\/p>\n
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School principals are in a quandary over KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Senzo Mchunu\u2019s unexpected announcement of the abandonment of all school trips for the rest of the year, following the death of 10 pupils at the weekend. <\/p>\n
A Celebrate Durban event has had to be cancelled and schools began cancelling their excursions and sports trips yesterday after Mchunu announced on Sunday that he would suspend all school trips, including those relating to matric dances, farewells and sports events, for the rest of the year, following the accident in Bergville on Saturday night. <\/p>\n
The Okhombe Primary School pupils died with their driver when their taxi hit a cow before plunging into a river. They were returning from Mnambithi (Ladysmith), where they had participated in a sports meeting. <\/p>\n
Yesterday, The Mercury saw an e-mail of a notice, from the Department of Sport and Recreation, about one of the Celebrate Durban events \u2013 lifeguard activities \u2013 being cancelled \u201cdue to the moratorium by the department… with regard to learners [going] on excursions\u201d. <\/p>\n
The principal of one KwaMashu school said they faced a dilemma. \u201cWe have made bookings for an overnight stay at a hotel and transport, and we really do not know what to do now,\u201d he said, adding that he did not know if the hotel would refund them. <\/p>\n
Another school, in Inanda, had also made overnight bookings for a trip and organisers similarly did not know what to do. <\/p>\n
Children in rural schools were not exposed to the city and they would suffer the most because of the suspension, the principal of a Sundumbili School said yesterday. <\/p>\n
\u201cPupils are not happy about the news,\u201dshe said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI understand where the MEC\u2019s mindset is right now.\u201d <\/p>\n
But she gave the example, of her school\u2019s visit to the Gateway science centre this year, saying the pupils had been \u201cwowed\u201d. \u201cThe look on some the pupils\u2019 faces was priceless.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mchunu has warned that action will be taken against schools that do not comply. However, he also said if schools sent a motivation to the department, permission might be granted for a trip to go ahead. <\/p>\n
MPL and DA spokesman on education, Tom Stokes, described Mchunu\u2019s decision to take \u201csuch extreme measures\u201d as understandable. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, it is neither practically possible nor legal for this ruling to be enforced,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many people who rely on school excursions for their livelihood [they] include transport companies, school tour operators and event centres,\u201d he said, adding that it would have a financial impact and was likely to be challenged legally. <\/p>\n
Stokes said the ban would have an effect on thousands of sports fixtures and cultural events that took place every weekend across the province. <\/p>\n
He called on principals to be held accountable for the detailed planning and safety aspects of trips taken by pupils and said they needed \u201cto face an enquiry if things went wrong\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe MEC needs to ask every principal to submit to their local office, their school\u2019s safety and excursions policy within the next week.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA School principals are in a quandary over KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Senzo Mchunus unexpected announcement of the abandonment of all school trips for the rest of the year, following the death of 10 pupils at the weekend. School principals are in a quandary over KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Senzo Mchunu\u2019s unexpected announcement of the abandonment of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-14741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}