According to Mr Mike Hoffmeester of the Bishop Lavis Social Transformation Forum, that held a meeting in connection with this development last week, residents are unhappy because former learners at that school have suffered.

“The problem started when the department started busing in children from Philippi to what used to be the William Mason School which closed about two years ago.

“You must understand that the community is not against the busing in of these learners but they are concerned that the department did not take our local learners into consideration when they closed the school.

“Everything is being done to help these learners from Philippi, with them getting transport and we notice that the school is being upgraded as well.

“When they closed William Mason there was really no consideration for the learners of that school and most of them had to be transferred to schools in Elsies River.

“These children did not receive any help with their transport because they came from very disadvantaged homes. Because they did not have money to pay for transport a lot of these children had to walk to school, and as a result there was a lot of drop outs.

“This resulted in a lot of them also getting involved with crime which is a major problem in this area.

“Due to this latest development the parents of those children feel that the department should have assisted the former learners from that school in a bigger way before closing the school,” he said.

Hoffmeester also added that they were told that this was a temporary arrangement for the learners from Philippi whose school on a farm was damaged in recent flooding.

“We realise that they are busy doing these upgrades at the school, but what is going to happen after that. Are these facilities just going to go to waste?

“Will our children be able to apply to go to this school if there is space? We did not want those facilities to go to waste in the first place because a school of industry could have been established there.”

. At the time of going to press, TygerBurger was still awaiting a response from the WCED,