On Now
Weekdays 12:00 - 15:00
At Lunch Pulane
NEXT: 15:00 - 18:00 The Joyride with Nico, Nikki, Kayla and JayBee
Listen Live Streams

Central SA

Racism at NW schools to be assessed

───   PULANE CHOANE 13:50 Fri, 11 Jan 2019

Racism at NW schools to be assessed | News Article

All schools in the North West will now be probed for allegations of racism, following an incident in a Grade R class at a primary school in Schweizer-Reneke.


This is according to the MEC of Education in the province, Sello Lehari, who in an interview with OFM News this morning revealed that apart from the mentioned Schweizer-Reneke incident, he’s also received numerous other reports of incidents from schools in other parts of the province.

This follows after the teacher, known as Elana Barkhuizen, was suspended on Thursday at Laerskool Schweizer-Reneke following a picture that emerged where she allegedly deliberately separated four black pupils from a larger group of white pupils at another desk.

It is believed that on Wednesday, Barkhuizen initially sent the picture to a WhatsApp group for parents, in an effort to show how well the children were settling in on their first day of school. However, the image angered some parents, with some sharing it on Facebook and thereby making it go viral on social media. Lehari said when asked about why the children were seated in that manner, the teacher explained that it was because the four black pupils could neither speak English nor Afrikaans, which are the language mediums the school teaches in.

However, Lehari said he did not find the explanation offered by the teacher to be credible and then placed her on immediate suspension and launched an investigation into the matter. The provincial MEC also said he would be instituting a three-day investigation also against the school’s headmaster, who was accused by community members of racism. Some allege that he had a reputation for declining applications of both black learners as well as black teachers at the school. Lehari expects to receive a report on the headmaster by next week Tuesday and said the outcomes of the report will determine whether or not he is also suspended.


OFM News

@ 2024 OFM - All rights reserved Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | We Use Cookies - OFM is a division of Central Media Group (PTY) LTD.