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YOUR front-page lead article in the edition of Tuesday, 14 March, written by Ian Broughton, refers.

Your report quotes me as saying: "...the Education Department wants schools to accommodate approximately 30 pupils per classroom. Classrooms with 35 to 38 pupils are considered overcrowded".

In a letter addressed to our office, a primary school principal expressed concern about this statement, as well as the statement intimating "that pupils should not be schooled outside of their residential area". (I am quoting from the letter.)

I can clearly recall my telephonic conversation with your reporter. I told him that the Western Cape Education Department's (WCED) policy is that we have a capacity guideline of 35-38 learners per classroom.

In addition, I said, ideally we all want our classrooms to have 30 or less numbers for obvious reasons. However, given the current accommodation crisis, it is not possible. I want to reiterate that the WCED is committed to building a learning home for all our children, and providing quality education. Ultimately, the vision of MEC Cameron Dugmore is that each one of our schools should be centres of excellence, where we can provide our children with the best possible knowledge, skills and values, for them to be able to contribute meaningfully to our economy and build better communities.

But we face a myriad of challenges in realising this vision, including the challenges of accommodation and overcrowding.

In Kalk Bay, we have the following situation: St James (RC) is currently experiencing overcrowding and urgently needs additional classroom accommodation. The school implemented an innovative solution, but this has resulted in cramped conditions, which hamper effective learning and teaching. This militates against the successful implementation of the new curriculum.

Bay Primary has indicated that they are willing to vacate their Kalk Bay campus if it is offered to St James Primary in 2007. St James learners travel from areas as distant as Khayelitsha.

This illustrates that parents are willing to go to great lengths to fund transport to institutions willing to accept their learners and offer them quality education. This is best achieved if all our schools embrace all learners so as to optimally utilise school buildings.

All our 1 500 public ordinary schools belong to all our 900 000 children of the Western Cape province. Some of our schools support the transformation of our education system, and we commend them for this.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a perception among some that certain schools belong only to certain communities on the pretext of "preserving quality".

This is a clear indication that we still have a long way to go in ensuring integration, but we remain committed to building a learning home for all our children.

GERT WITBOOI

Media liaison officer: Office of the MEC for Education IAN BROUGHTON RESPONDS: Mr Witbooi was quoted correctly as to the ideal number of pupils being 30 per classroom. However, he chooses to focus on this rather than the point of the article, which was about the total number of learners the Department of Education expects local schools to accommodate.

He twice failed to provide the figures in response to our requests, choosing instead to concentrate on a single quote from the article.

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