MORE than 200 KZN schools will close their gates for good in December 2023.
This is after the Department of Education announced that it was planning to shut down all the schools in the province that are not meeting enrolment criteria.
Many people have called for the department to reconsider this action, while others believe such changes need consultations with communities and amakhosi.
Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesman for Education in KZN, Dr Imran Keeka, said the department planned to shut down 255 small and non-viable schools.
Keeka said the planned shutdown included 70 high schools and 185 primary schools.
"ANC, which runs the government, should be in the business of opening schools, not closing them unless necessary,” said Keeka.
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) provincial chairman Mongezi Twala has called for the department to move with speed in building quality classrooms for all the schools in the province that were affected by floods.
“The department cannot be engaged in a process of shutting down close to 1 000 schools while failing to repair and restore the ones affected by floods,” he said.
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) chairman in KZN, Thami Ntuli, said they are concerned about this move which will see thousands of pupils walking long distances to schools, especially those from rural areas.
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“With the government doing very little to ensure that schools in rural areas are fully resourced, efficiently run and well taken care of, it is only to be expected that their enrolment levels will be low.
"Staff and teachers working at rural schools are not well compensated.
"This leads to many educators migrating to better schools, leaving the poorest performing rural schools without well-qualified teachers,” said Ntuli.
Responding to the growing concerns over the shutting down of schools, head of the department Dr Nkosinathi Ngcobo said mergers and closures of schools is a standard practice that occurs when schools are non-viable and too costly to operate.
“Section 5 states that a school with an enrolment of less than 135 learners in primary schools and less than 200 learners in secondary schools does not meet the minimum standards.
“In KZN, however, the province has resolved to focus on schools which have less than 50 in primary schools and less than 100 in secondary schools as not meeting the minimum requirements of norms and standards,” Ngcobo said.
