Madam Speaker, in the interests of taking collective responsibility for education in South Africa, the ID ensured that all our councillors and local leadership were involved in the opening of schools in their immediate areas. From this exercise there were three main issues that arose that we would like to bring to the attention of the House.
Firstly, vandalism was still a big issue at a number of schools, especially those in poor and impoverished communities. The second issue was that a number of children are still being refused access to schooling because their parents could not afford to pay the fees. Thirdly, there was the issue of late registration.
With regard to vandalism, government needs to work in partnership with communities to take ownership of schools and report acts of vandalism to the authorities.
Regarding late registration, the ID believes that government needs to do much more in terms of an awareness campaign to inform parents about early registration. This will ensure that schools are not faced with unnecessary administrative holdups on the first day, but that the education of our children can start in earnest.
Finally, the government needs to ensure that schools are fully informed about the rights of learners and the constitutional provisions for schooling. We cannot have cases where learners are turned away because they are poor. The ID has thus far assisted two primary school learners with their right to education, as enshrined in our Constitution, and urges communities and parents to report other such incidences. No child can be discriminated against. These issues must be resolved so that our teachers can concentrate on teaching and our children on learning. Thank you.