Limpopo Department of Education’s plans to merge and shut down small and unviable schools in the Vhembe district is met with resistance from the parents in Mulamula village, under Collins Chabane Local Municipality.

The provincial education department is set to close various small schools in rural areas in Vhembe, such as Photani and Johannes Rhamavhoya secondaries, Mzamani Thomas primary school under Mulamula and merge them with nearby schools, because of dwindling pupil enrolment.

The parents are accusing the department of failing to provide the schools with enough support such as infrastructure, key learning and teaching materials and staff that could have potentially enabled growth in the enrollment.

Hosi Desmond Maluleke of Mulamula Traditional council accused the department of imposition for failing to consult with them about the merging intentions.

“In terms of BELA Act No.32 of 2024, Section 13(a), the MEC has to do consultation and inform the concerned schools about the intention to merge such schools, however this is just a shock to Mzamani Thomas Primary School and Mulamula Primary School located at Dumela village that the department is already implementing Section 13(c) of Bela Act without following the other processes.

“In terms of Rhabela Secondary School located at Nhombelani village and Photani High School located at Magangeni village (Mbhayimbhayi) consultation was done with SGB and parents without involving the community at large and the traditional council within its jurisdiction by the department of education in this important undertaking upon the lives of our subjects,” Hosi Maluleke said.

Mzamani Thomas lower primary which has Grade R to 6, and was officially opened in 2017 by then MEC of Education Ishmael Kgetjepe. It is on a death knell with 80 pupil enrolment and two teachers and a principal.

During its official opening, the school had 131 learners and was promised that grade 7 would be established.

The school said that parents started removing pupils from the school due to staff shortage, delay in establishing grade 7 and shortage of furniture.

“In relation to Mzamani Thomas Primary school, Limpopo Department of Education never fulfilled its constitutional mandate by establishing grade 7 as this school has got grade 6 of which the support requested from the department was not honoured taking into account that there is no furnisher for multipurpose classroom so the commitment as per agreements reached should be implemented first to see if the school does not grow to its envisaged capacity before thinking about the merger,” (SIC) said Maluleke as he attributed reasons for the school’s enrolment decline.

Limpopo Department of Education spokesperson Mike Maringa said the schools are not viable because of the low enrolment. He poured cold water on the allegations that the department didn’t provide the schools with enough support.

“Educators are allocated based on the number of learners at the school. A primary school with less than 135 learners is not viable and as such, a process to merge it with other schools would kick in.

“We can’t take many teachers where there are no learners, the ratio allocation of teachers is 1:38 and that’s the reason why we have two teachers and a principal in that school,” Maringa said.

With another ⁠consultations set to take place this month for the school in question and others in the similar state, parents have vowed to boycott them and call for the department to support these schools instead of closing them.

“Most of these parents in Nabelani won’t afford to pay for school transport that is amounting between R300 to R350, so the department should give us the needed support and see if the enrolment cannot improve,“ Mkateko Maluleke said