One of the oldest schools in Grahamstown, respected for its academic and sporting achievements, is in crisis. Nathaniel Nyaluza Secondary School, in Fingo, founded in 1938, has been struggling without effective leadership for almost three years, and teachers blame this for the difficulties they're having in the classroom.
One of the oldest schools in Grahamstown, respected for its academic and sporting achievements, is in crisis. Nathaniel Nyaluza Secondary School, in Fingo, founded in 1938, has been struggling without effective leadership for almost three years, and teachers blame this for the difficulties they're having in the classroom.
Grocott's Mail visited the school on Thursday and, in an exclusive interview with the newspaper, teacher George Lamani shared the story of the school's struggles since 2009. This was the year principal Washington Mushwana was removed from the position, accused of failing to correctly manage the school's finances.
When Mushwana was asked to account for school funds, he failed to do so and the district director Amos Fetsha took him away, said Lamani. We were not told where he was going and until today we still don't know where he is. Lamani said audit reports had confirmed that all was not well with the school's finances.
There were two temporary teachers at the school, Lamani said, who had been there since 2010 without being offered permanent positions. According to a memorandum handed to Fetsha by Nyaluza two weeks ago, the school has no Grade 12 Geography or Life Sciences teacher.
The memorandum asks how the present 15 teachers could be expected to contend with more than 530 pupils, when last year, 19 teachers weren't enough for 480 pupils. Eastern Cape department of education spokesperson Loyiso Pulumani told Grocott's Mail this week that the department was in the process of filling all vacant school principals' posts.
A bulletin of the principals vacant posts filling was issued last year and at the beginning of March another bulletin of the filling of deputy principals and Head of Departments' posts will be out, Pulumani said in a telephone interview. He acknowledged there were critical vacancies in schools and said they were moving towards filling these vacancies.
He admitted that communication between district directors and schools was poor. Of the problem at Nathaniel Nyaluza, fetsha told Grocott's Mail yesterday that this had a long history and he did not have time to go back and discuss it. The post of the principal has been advertised and the process of employment is currently under way, said Fetsha.
Lamani said when they went to give Fetsha the memorandum, he had been reluctant to meet with them. Also contained in the memorandum was a demand for Fetsha to be replaced. Fetsha was angry. He did not even greet us and was refusing to take the memorandum, said Lamani.
