The situation at our schools is shocking, please help get children back to school

Last year, I was walking through Ottery flats when I found two children, aged 9 and 10, walking with a woman during school hours. They were not attending school and they had no birth certificates.

Further down the road, I found another brother and sister, 7 and 10 years old, also not attending school. The girl dropped out 3 years ago and the mom just never bothered to enrol them.

After a while, I found some more children, aged 7, 8 and 9, who has never even seen the inside of a classroom.

With the parents’ permission, I applied, on their behalf, to the Western Cape Education Department. It was way past the deadline and it’s notoriously difficult to get a child re-enrolled when they have dropped out. But, through persistence, I managed to get six children enrolled for 2024.

Another shock came when I found out that the children were being placed in age-related grades, regardless of the fact that they could neither read nor write. That meant the 9-year-old went straight to Grade 2 and she couldn’t even read or write! I had to organise tutorial classes for them to help them catch up. s

On my journey, I also found two 15-year-olds, one of them in high school and the other in primary school, and they couldn’t write and read.

The situation at our schools is shocking.

However, due to financial restraints, I will be forced to suspend my activities and find a job if things don’t change soon. But the country, as a whole, needs this type of intervention. Education is the only way we are going to change the situation in our country. Yet it’s so hard finding support. Please help.

* Jonathan Johnson, Ottery.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

Cape Argus

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