Closure of Selang Primary School in Leboneng hangs in the balance

The closure of Selang Primary School in Leboneng Hammanskraal is uncertain while the Gauteng Department of Education is engaging with relevant stakeholders in Hammanskraal to merge Selang Primary School with Leboneng Primary.

This is because learner enrollment continues to drop at Selang Primary School while the enrollment at Leboneng Primary School continues to grow to a point where community members feel the latter is overcrowded.

The community is for the view that the two schools should share the number of learners instead of closing Selang Primary.

Spokesperson for the Gauteng Education Department, Mr Steve Mabona, said the process to close and merge the two schools has not yet started as the District Office is still in the process of developing the management plan.

Asked whether the principals trying to increase their salaries can cause overcrowding by learners enrollment, Mr Mabona said it is true that a principal’s salary is linked to the school’s grading but there must be a sustainable increase in learner population over a period of three years.

He said the physical resources must also be available to underpin such growth and the change of the grading must be applied for and approved by the Head Office after verification of the facts.

“Where there is evidence that the principal had flouted the admission regulations and may have, knowingly, caused overcrowding at a particular school, disciplinary steps will be taken against the principal,” he said.

Community members interviewed by Moretele Times said there is overcrowding at Leboneng Primary with numbers now standing at 782 pupils while Selang Primary enrollment is very low at 195 pupils.

Selang Primary School consist of 10 classrooms and one Grade R mobile classroom but with the low leaner enrollment for 2017 still at 195 pupils for all grades combined, learners use six out of 10 classrooms.

All efforts to save the school proved to fail, starting from community outreach programmes as well as introduction of Grade R to encourage parents to enroll their children at the school.

Mr Mabona said parents might be attracted to a particular school, by many reason that in turn may cause overcrowding. “Among the reasons, it might be because of good performance of the school, good management, discipline, location and lack of schools in the area.”

He said a meeting with parents, the community and all the stakeholders will be convened to listen to all concerns when the request to merge the two schools is finally submitted to the Head of Department.

The following is the comparative table indicating Leboneng and Selang learner population (in terms of the 10^th Day Head Count) over a period of five years provided by the Gauteng Department of Education: