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As the students’ movement we are of the view that indeed communities
deserve service delivery from the government that they have elected into
power which has a primary mandate to serve and service the communities
and citizens. The concerns raised in the Northern Cape are genuine and
the government needs to be held accountable on why our people, till now,
have not received developments which are long overdue. As the Congress of
South African Students we say this with a full understanding of the might
of our people because we also hail from these communities hence we have
always said that we are members of the community first before we are
scholars.

The Congress of South African Students however condemns the use of
education of learners as a tool to fight. The Students’ movement will
never support struggles which are waged using the delay of education of
learners as a tactic. This is the same as community members who burn down
government infrastructure to wage different struggles, which is walking 3
steps forward and 2 back. The communities involved in these protests
obviously did not weigh the protest they are currently involved in, the
expected outcomes of it and the education of a learner which is knowledge
that would be accumulated by the learner for life and open the door for
them to a brighter future.

It is for these reasons that as the Congress of South African Students we
lobby our parents in the communities in question to reconsider their
strategy of protesting as it has the ability of reducing the genuine
struggles they are waging. As the students’ movement we lobby the South
African National Civic Organization (SANCO) to intervene in the community
in question in order to give guidance and perhaps lead this struggle
waged by our fellow citizens. The South African Communist Party, again we
believe working hand in hand with SANCO, can assist the process of giving
this particular protest the correct momentum it deserves not the one of
gambling with the future of this country. COSAS remains a students’
movement    and our main concern in this whole issue is the learners. We
are also saying that the department of education cannot be considering to
deregister students, particularly matriculants, affected by this saga as
it is not their fault therefor it should in no way compromise them. The
department should come up with creative and fair solutions without
compromising the quality of assessments which will see these learners
ready to write their final examinations in this context. Deregistering
these learners would just be adding on to the list of problems that are
already there in this community. The Congress of South African Students
further lobbies the Premier of the Northern Cape Government to intervene
in bargaining with the community members so that issues will be addressed
and no further disruptions transpire in the living of this community.

The Congress of South African Students has again noted the closure of 40
schools in the Eastern Cape by parents through the SGB’S as a result of
shortage of teachers in the schools in question. COSAS firstly condemns
harshly the decision of parents, to sit alone with principals and decide
to shut down schools without involving the learners in engagements. As
the students’ movement we feel the voice of students was not heard in
this matter which was incorrect because it is the future of learners that
is delayed in this process. Our parents are raising genuine concerns
which as an organization we naturally are for but it cannot go unnoticed
that schools are shut down and that there are learners which are not
receiving their basic human right which is education. The department of
education should have long intervened in these schools and ensured that
there are enough qualified teachers, by the way the ratio of teacher-
learner in a class is supposed to be 1 teacher for 30 learners, the
department of education in the Eastern Cape is clearly very far from
achieving such for the schools in the particular province. The department
needs to act now as a matter of urgency and  ensure that the schools in
question are opened through providing these schools with teachers even if
they are temporally leading up to the final examinations and seeing to it
that trial examinations continue. We are saying such a strategy should be
implemented whilst the department of education of the province in
question ensures that it works on finding a more permanent solution of
getting enough qualified teachers for the schools.

The COSAS has pronounced continuously on departments of education in
provinces which do not take seriously the education of learners, the
Eastern Cape and Northern Cape can be counted on those provinces where
there are various other underlying issues besides this one which continue
to cripple the culture of teaching and learning in schools. If education
was being taken seriously in both the provinces of Eastern Cape and
Northern Cape then these issues which are affecting learning in more than
90 schools meaning more than 100 000 students are not in school in our
country would have been dealt with by now. In a department of education
where education is being taken seriously there would be special
intervention teams always ready in place to intervene in any issue, again
the department would be aware of all issues surrounding teaching and
learning in each school without even awaiting a report and acting a week
or even a month later. There should again be committees which look into
collecting all necessary information about all schools so that if there
are cases, each case is dealt with before it even begins to affect
learning. We also feel that the MEC’s of education in these provinces
think they are on holiday and the offices of the department are a
honeymoon suit in Mauritius. Offices of the department of education
should be a revolutionary place where everyone is busy trying to develop
the education sector. Lastly MEC’S of education in provinces need to
spend more time on the ground visiting schools and district offices until
at least there is a bit of improvement.