Struggle songs were the order of the day as Mary Waters High teachers joined pupils and their parents on the streets yesterday in protest against the school's shortage of teachers.
Struggle songs were the order of the day as Mary Waters High teachers joined pupils and their parents on the streets yesterday in protest against the school's shortage of teachers.
From the school's grounds, pupils and parents sang their way down Beaufort Street, through High Street, and towards the local district office of the department of education at the corner of St Aidan's and Milner streets, to deliver a petition.
"Our hearts are bleeding," said Zanky Mahlahla, a Grade 11 Maths Literacy teacher at the school, at the entrance to the offices. "We are dealing with the leaders of the nearest future."
But their arrival was met with disappointment: the director of the local district office, Amos Fetsha, to whom they planned to hand over their petition, was reportedly in East London, attending a meeting.
Despite the snag, both parents and pupils remained defiant, even threatening to occupy the office's premises until Fetsha showed up. "Come [out]Mr Fetsha! Come [out]!," the crowd chanted. "We're going nowhere until we get a positive response," she said.
Moments before the crowd had decided to occupy the entrance to the offices, parents forced their way into the building in exasperation, looking for Fetsha in his office. He was not in. One parent, descending the steps next to the exit, said, "This guy's making a fool of us."
It was decided that an acting director at the office would receive a delegation from the school, in place of Fetsha. As the morning wore on, the crowd of pupils outside used song to declare their pain at having lost 11 teachers. Chants and screams for Fetsha to show up were heard outside the office's gate.
"These black boers are giving us worries," sang the students, implying that the current crisis facing the education department under the African National Congress was comparable to the legacy of Bantu Education under apartheid. "Our children are suffering, not us," said another parent.
To the tune of Senzeni na? (What have we done?), and other struggle songs, Mawa pupils filled the parking lot, baying for Fetsha's blood. Mario Agnew, 38, a teacher and parent at Mary Waters, raised concerns about how the shortage of teachers would affect the children's end-of-year results.
"Twenty-seven teachers cannot control 1 170 learners," said Agnew. "It's an impossible situation. I'm teaching in my classroom, but there's no teacher in the class next door and the class after that. It's unfair to the children. This is not of their own doing."
Another parent, Felicity Blaauw, said, "We want our children to be taught. How can they be expected to pass their grades when they are missing out on such subjects as languages? Time is running out."
In support of the march was the Save Our Schools and Community (Sosac), a local non-profit organisation. A parent, Ntomboxolo Manyathi, 38, said: "Children without teachers is a nation without leaders."
