5.2 Data presentation
5.2.9 Other effects of school categorisation on schools
The majority of the participants mentioned that the government did not consider the learners the schools service before categorising the schools and others highlighted that because of categorisation some schools have lost the learners they used to teach. Mrs Singh, a post level 1 teacher of Toyi Primary School explained:
Before this school had lot of Indian learners, now we do not even have one in school although some of the teaching staff of colour were still in school but none of the learners were here
(Mrs Singh, post level 1 teacher of Toyi Primary School).
Similarly, Ms Buyeka, the post level 1 teacher of Lokishini Secondary School stated:
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Because of categorisation we have these former Model C schools around and then the township and rural schools. Normally when the parents afford they prefer to take their children to the former Model C school, which is a well-known thing. As time goes on in South Africa our rand was diminishing and that impacts on every household and the same parents were compelled to return the children to township school
(Ms Buyeka, post level 1 teacher of Lokishini Secondary School).
Likewise, Mrs Nkala, the post level 1 teacher of Mshini Secondary School had the following to say:
If look around us there is no sign of poverty but our learners are not from the same rich environment, some of our learners come as far as Eastern Cape, from the surrounding townships like Imbali, others from rural areas because they were coming for better resources, now if we were categorised as a rich school but having poor learners, I think that has an impact on the school
(Mrs Nkala, post level 1 teacher of Mshini Secondary School).
The majority of the participants mentioned that the government must be realistic and practical when categorising the schools. Mrs Nodlula, the principal of Toyi Primary School explained:
I feel Department of Education must not consider categorising schools in terms of infrastructure. Everything may look fine but we are not teaching the walls, the tar road, electricity we are teaching learners coming from poor families. They need to come to school and do their study or send a form that we can fill-in to say how many learners that we have that do not have parents, learners coming from impoverished homes, etc. They need to do that before they can categorise schools
(Mrs Nodlula, the principal of Toyi Primary School).
Similarly, Mr Sikhulu, the post level 1 teacher of Lokishini Secondary School stated:
I criticise the government for simply deciding to categorise without checking the needs of every school. Whoever did the categorisation of schools must come back to the schools to check the essentials needs of that school, they did not do that properly and this is affecting the schools, schools that are supposed to be achieving are not
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achieving. If our quantile can change, I’m definitely sure that we can move from the worse to a better quintile level
(Mr Sikhulu, post level 1 teacher of Lokishini Secondary School).
Likewise, Mrs Thobeka, the post level 1 teacher of Hloba Primary School had the following to say:
There has not been consultation about it. I think it cannot be viewed through the tarred roads, water and electricity to a minimalistic categorisation of school environment that houses human beings. They have taken away the human factor and they have categorised it based on the building and I think that is the greatest injustice.
So, there was no consultation about it and there is no human factor. I think that was the greatest challenge to categorisation
(Mrs Thobeka, the post level 1 teacher of Hloba Primary School).
Sharing the same opinion is Ms Maviyo, the principal of Ngoyi Primary School who mentioned the following:
Looking at how poor our learners are and the same government that was preaching free education cannot take care of the education system through this categorisation they have imposed on us
(Ms Maviyo, the principal of Ngoyi Primary School).
Whilst I was waiting at the gate of Mshini Secondary School I observed many learners brought to school by minibuses and bakkies which proved that some of the learners attending this school were not from the area. Furthermore, there were also some of the learners walking from the taxi rank to school. What I observed confirms what Mrs Nkala, the post level 1 teacher of Mshini Secondary School mentioned when stating that the majority of learners attending the school were not from the local community but are from the outskirts of town.
The similar observation was evident at Toyi Primary School where most of the learners attending the school were African learners coming from different townships of the city bussed by mini busses and bakkies as well. Resonating with what Ms Maviyo, the principal of Ngoyi Primary School said during our discussion was the letter dated 18 November 2014 written to non-profit organisation which had donated clothes and blankets to the learners.
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This suggests that the schools are really serving the indigent community thus the department of education did not take that into consideration when they categorised the schools.
Kamper (2008) posits that sociological and socio-economic problems relating to poverty were evident in the true impact of high poverty schools by the signs like learners who do not have proper clothing. Besides the socio economic status some black parents decide to move away from historically black schools in the townships and chose schools in other areas outside their dwelling places because they perceive these schools as having quality and reasonable standards as opposed to low-quality schools (Msila, 2011). Social identity theory and self-categorisation theory highlight the fact that intragroup dynamics and structure also are influenced by the sociodemographic structure of society (Hogg & Reid, 2006).