Guard your schools jealously, urges GDE
ALEXANDRA - Raymond Martin of the Gauteng Department of Education has appealed to parents in Alexandra to take an active interest in the education of their children.
Raymond Martin of the Gauteng Department of Education has appealed to parents in Alexandra to take an active interest in the education of their children.
The Johannesburg East district director was speaking at a gala dinner of the Respect and Ubuntu Foundation of Alex business tycoon, George Moyo, organised in conjunction with Big Time ICT Group led by Justice Maphosa at the Alexandra Campus of the Central Johannesburg College.
“I have noticed this reluctance on the part of parents in Alexandra to attend parental meetings at school in order to engage and interrogate the teachers on the work and progress of their children, and some of these parents are even reluctant to be elected or co-opted into school governing bodies,” said Martin.
“But interestingly enough, the same parents are quick to attend to meetings and other requirements when their children move to the so-called model C schools. At these schools they engage the teachers in the work and progress of their children but don’t do the same in Alex.”
Martin said the only way education could be improved in Alexandra to the level of those model C schools, was through their unwavering commitment to the education of their children, which included being kept informed on the progress of their children and attending meetings as they were called.
The theft of school property and the vandalism of schools in the area did not escape the sharp tongue of Martin.
“I would like to call upon the parents and community of Alexandra to jealously guard against the theft and vandalism being committed in schools,” he said.
“These schools are yours and for your children and generations to come. We should be proud of them and guard them jealously. Each year we pay millions of rand for furniture, and that money could be going towards other necessities in the schools.”
Martin noted that in model C schools, a desk and chair were passed from generation to generation, walls and windows and windows panes of the 18th century were still standing and strong even today, yet in township schools all those things have been either stolen or vandalised.
Martin said he was particularly distressed by schoolchildren who vandalise chairs and desks by throwing them from the top floors to other floors or the ground.
“This type of behaviour never happens in model C schools, and I ask myself why [it does] in our township schools,” he said.
