About 390 Eastern Cape schools have recently been gazetted by the Education MEC Fundile Gade for realignment and merger as part of the drive to ensure that learners receive public quality education.

The gazetting of these small schools follows a series of meaningful meetings with parents, unions, school governing bodies and civil society leaders since they are no longer viable to run with small numbers of learners.

The gazette promulgated on July 5th, gave communities a thirty (30) day period to submit comments confirming the list.  The list contained stipulated process to follow when submitting such comments to the districts and provincial office.

The meaningful consultation which has resulted in the promulgation of those identified schools for realignment and merger.

The realignment and merger of schools is prescribed by the South African Schools Act (Act 84 of 1996). Primarily, the program is meant to ensure that learners receive quality public education at all times as prescribed by the Constitution of the land.

The gazetted schools had less than the prescribed number of learners for either a primary or high school hence the move to merge them for better learner performance and outcomes.

The Norms and Standards prescribes that a minimum number of enrolled primary school learners should be 135, while a secondary school should have at least 200 enrolled learners.

These schools do not meet any of those regulations and merging or realigning them will guarantee that each learners receives public quality education.

Issued by ECDOE Communications
For more details please contact Mali Mtima 084 230 1976