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 Equal Education (EE) picketed outside the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) against the closure of schools on the basis of underperformance. During the picket EE delivered a memorandum to Penny Vinjevold, head of education in the Western Cape.

EE’s memorandum made the following demands:

1. The WCED must keep the three ‘underperforming’ schools open and ensure that substantive, sustained interventions are made to improve learner performance at these schools.
2. Schools must be kept open where relocation to placement schools will infringe children’s right to education – whether because of language, subject, capacity or safety reasons.
3. A comprehensive and detailed transport plan for rural schools must be produced immediately.
4. The WCED must release their audit of pupil transport in the province.
5. The WCED must commit to finishing the process of future school closures earlier in the year, well before school enrolment deadlines.

In some cases school closures may be legitimate and necessary; however, school closures should not be viewed as a reformative mechanism. While in some cases closure may be in the best interest of the learners, many school closures will have a negative effect on learners’ right to a basic education.

Three of the 27 schools were identified for closure on the grounds of underperformance: Peak View Secondary School, Beauvallon Secondary School and Zonnebloem Nest Senior School. Underperformance is an insufficient and impermissible reason for school closure, more so where the WCED has made inadequate interventions to remedy the situation.

The South African Schools Act stipulates that “the Head of Department must take all reasonable steps to assist a school in addressing the underperformance”. From the documents provided to EE by the WCED, it is clear there have been no comprehensive, sustained and targeted interventions implemented by the WCED to improve learner performance at these schools.

EE’s chairperson, Ntuthuzo Ndzomo, highlighted the WCED’s failure in this regard: “the WCED’s High School Support Programme is targeted specifically at content subjects but neglects literacy which is essential to learner performance. Tutoring programmes at Grade 12 level and periodic visits by WCED officials to verify marks and ensure that teachers are following the curriculum do not constitute substantive support and assistance.”

The WCED must not circumvent its obligations to provide substantive support, and turn instead to the “quick fix” alternative of closure. If the root causes of underperformance are not properly identified, closing a school for underperformance is unlikely to address the problem; it only shifts it to another school.