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Demand for English tuition
02/02/2007 11:12 - (SA)
Johannesburg - A shortage of English schools in the Southern Cape - caused by an increase in the number of parents wanting their children taught in the language - has forced Afrikaans schools in the region to start new streams to accommodate pupils.
The Herald Online reported on Friday that the education department said it supported the move. But it would not be able to place departmental teachers at such schools until the teacher-pupils ratio reached 39 to 1.
Staff paid by the schools' governing bodies will teach the English classes in the meantime.
Dellville Park Primary School in Pacaltsdorp, which is an Afrikaans-medium school, has opened its doors to English pupils after Afrikaans-and Xhosa-speaking parents asked the school to allow their children to be taught in English.
At the time of the request, more than four years ago, the school had been losing Afrikaans pupils to former Model-C schools in George.
Dellville Park principal Jeremy van Wyk asked the governing body at the time to allow him to open an English-medium stream.
"We are very excited at the increase in the number of English pupils, as well as a number of Afrikaans pupils being tutored in English. We even have a small number of pupils from nearby Thembalethu enrolling," said Van Wyk.
In 2004, seven pupils were enrolled in Grade one - today 87 are enrolled between Grade one and three, representing more than 16% of the total number of 530 pupils who enrolled this year.
Some 27 pupils enrolled in Grade one this year, with an average of 24 pupils per grade.
Denneoord Primary School in George has 370 pupils, 90 of them in English-medium classes.
Principal Martinus Gericke said as Denneoord suburb had grown, especially the number of English-speaking families, so the school had decided to start an English-medium stream.
"We now have classes from Grade one to Grade three. Our intake in Grade one this year was 32 pupils. Once we reach 39 pupils, we can apply to the department for a teacher," Gericke said.
Both schools have maintained teachers through governing body posts.
Southern Cape education district director Bonnie Sesenyamotse said there was not enough budget to provide more dedicated English-medium tuition.
Despite budgetary restraints, the department fully supported schools like Dellville Park and Denneoord Primary.
As the demand for English as a medium of instruction in George is growing, English school York High has seen a similar phenomenon.
With 853 pupils and long waiting lists, principal Tony Dingle said the school was filtering pupils through to dual-medium PW Botha High School and South Cape College in George.
- SAPA
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