Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng conducted an oversight inspection at Klipspruit West Secondary School in Soweto, and discovered that the school is facing serious challenges, ranging from poor matric results, late coming, lack of support from parents, and no permanent principal at the school.
The school has been in serious decline since 2017. In 2019, the school was the worst performing school in Gauteng and only achieved a 47% matric pass rate for the 2020 academic year.
Klipspruit West Secondary has had acting principals since 2017, following the removal of the last permanent principal after parents protested demanding his removal. There is also a vacancy of the Head of Department that has not yet been filled.
The school lacks the environment for conducive for learning and teaching, with dirty facilities, pavements full of weeds, while the grass continues growing after not having been cut since last year. The multi-purpose court has been left incomplete, the sports ground has turned into bush, with big trees needing urgent removal.
The school has money for maintenance however, the bank signatories who are the members of the School Governing Body (SGB) have left, and they are still waiting for the appointment of new SGB members to fill their positions.
The school has not yet received some of the textbooks, hampering the roll out of the 2021 academic year syllabus, while the school has more empty classrooms due to fewer learners enrolling as a result of poor performance.
Late coming is also a challenge for both learners and teachers which needs to be addressed, while there is also a lack of discipline among learners and a lack of parent support, as they do not attend parents meetings at the school.
The DA calls on the Gauteng MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi to intervene as a matter of urgency to ensure that this school improve its performance. It is the responsibility of the department to ensure that all schools have all the required study materials and that all the school vacancies are filled.
The school must receive ongoing support from the district until they reach an acceptable performance level. District officials must play an effective role, starting with encouraging parents to get involved in the next SGB elections.