Learners at The Leadership College (TLC) in Hyde Park in Mitchell’s Plain face an uncertain future as parents are forced to find alternative placement for their children with the school’s looming closure. TLC in Hyde Park is in the midst of a financial crisis resulting from a mammoth R8 million debt accumulated due to unpaid school fees.
But the school’s board has also been accused of severe governance failures, in the wake of the financial crisis at its sister school, TLC Manenberg. The Manenberg school is fighting an eviction order from its landlord, Cape Town Child Welfare, after it fell behind on its water and electricity bills, and other municipal services. This matter is ongoing.
Parents of Hyde Park were informed of the school’s shutdown two days before the school closed for the second term at a meeting held with the school’s management. The decision to close the Hyde Park institution has upset the parents of the learners who have voiced concerns about the future of their children. This includes allegations of gaps within the TLC Hyde Park’s curriculum and difficulty adjusting to new schools that are willing to accommodate them. 140 high school learners will be affected.
Financial crisis
Speaking to VOC, Yusuf Salie, the head of operations at TLC said the school took a “last resort” decision to not close the school, but rather “absorb” the students into TLC Manenberg.
“The school is not closing, but only the high school is being absorbed into TLC in Manenberg as of the beginning of next year,” he said.
The Hyde Park school operates as a separate entity from the Manenberg school and has been a fee-paying school since its inception. Both schools, including a third school in Observatory, are registered with the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) as independent schools.
Before establishing the school TLC management conducted research into the affordability model for each area. In Manenberg, it was found that parents were relying on social grants, while in certain suburbs of Mitchells Plain many parents are earning a decent living wage. At TLC Hyde Park, the school fees are set at R800 per month or R8000 per annum.
Salie said the non-payment of fees therefore had a severe knock-on effect in terms of the operation of the school.
“We had parents whose circumstances have changed and cannot afford to pay fees, and then there are parents who are simply refusing to pay fees. There are many reasons, but this is directly as a result of unpaid fees,” he explained.
Uncertain parents
At the meeting with TLC management, frustrated parents criticized the school’s service delivery and the timing of the closure. Uraz Da Costa, representing the parents at the school, said learners are unsettled due to the disruptions. He said the school has had not had regular classes, teachers were resigning and there were not sufficient subjects covered in terms of the curriculum standard.
Parents were informed that learners will be absorbed into the TLC in Manenberg, but parents do not want their children to travel out of the area.
“It’s easy for us in Mitchell’s Plain and now the difficulty is finding schools that will accommodate us. No school will take on a grade 11 student in the third term,” he said.
Despite being situated in disadvantaged areas afflicted by drug abuse and gang violence, TLC has historically produced top students. The school was established as an alternative to the elite suburban schools and is aimed at learners who are extremely bright academically, but cannot afford to attend a good school. These learners often slip through the cracks of an unfair social justice system.
But TLC’s current financial crises has resulted in Hyde Park learners falling behind in the curriculum and there are fears that their marks and the quality of passes will not be adequate for entrance into university.
“Some schools are not prepared to take on some of the kids because they know they are far behind with their work. Some schools have said the kids need to repeat the grade. We have had tutors check the school’s curriculum standard and we have discovered that they are only doing grade 10 maths [in grade 11],” said Da Costa.
Roshana Mohamed claims TLC management has not been supportive in assisting the parents,
“We applied at a specific school in Mitchells Plain and were told they would be accepted. The next day we were declined. We had already collected the children’s transfers,” she said, inferring that the schools were not willing to place an extra burden on themselves to take on new students.
Salie conceded that the “gaps” in Hyde Park’s academic development was due to staff being paid late, due to unpaid school fees. Many educators chose to leave the school, sometimes giving only a day notice.
“Having to recruit a new teacher in the middle of a term is very difficult. But we really tried our best in our school holidays to have winter school programme to close the gaps.”
TLC director Ashra Norton added that teachers from Manenberg TLC were sent to Hyde Park to conduct an assessment of learners and bring them up to par.
On alternative placement for learners, Salie reassured that parents who had paid their school fees up to date would be placed at the Manenberg school. Hyde Park principal Mr Achmat Adam is engaging principals of surrounding schools to absorb certain learners through the remainder of this year, he added.
TLC has also assured parents it will centralise the process for transport providers to transport learners to the Manenberg school. The current educators at Hyde Park will be absorbed into the Manenberg school depending on numbers and the employment needs.
Da Costa said the blame for the school’s closure is being “unfairly” laid at the parents, who have been accused of not paying school fees.
“If you are running a business, and you see you are running a deficit into your first million rand, then its good practise to make the necessary plans to prevent further deficit. You don’t run a deficit of R8 million and then lay the blame on the parents. Then you are not managing the business correctly.”
The lack of transparency over the school’s financial management has created a mistrust of the school, said Da Costa.
WCED spokesperson Paddy Atwell said an investigation would be launched in mid-August into the schools operation.
“The officials will engage the school and parents and develop a plan from there. At this stage, given the parent’s concerns, the department needs to check if there are gaps in the learning system at the school.”
Atwell said officials are also looking at contingency plans to assist parents to place learners.
Accountability
The chairman of the Progressive Principals’ Association, Riyaad Najaar, also a principal at Spine Road High school in Mitchells Plain, described the school’s situation as “tragic” and “bordering on criminal”. He said some of the learners enrolled at Spine Road were assessed and it was found that the Grade 11 basics mathematics skills were comparable to that of learners in Grade 9.
Najaar said he was disheartened to see multitudes of emotional parents struggling to deal with this issue. He further stressed the disastrous impact these changes would have on the children.
“What we see with these situations is that the child will start hating school. At high school, you are self-conscious about your self-worth. And these learners have definitely been affected. If we had been approached as the PPA, we could have assisted with saving the situation,” he pointed out.
Najaar urged all role players to desist from playing the “blame-game”, and for all involved, including the education department, to take responsibility,
“Proper financial control was not exercised. You do not close a school, especially an Islamic institution. I am completely with the parents, who have been given all these promises,” he pointed out.
“At the end of the day, these parents paid for an education, which they deserve. People need to be taken to task and for forsaking their responsibility to educate. We must hold everyone to account for this debacle.”
The PPA said it would be open to assisting the Hyde Park school, but with the support of the broader community. He warned parents to do proper homework before enrol their children in a private institution,
“Unfortunately, most of these institutions are driven by economic gain and are not serious about educating the child. Look at the facilities on offer, and do not throw your money down the drain.” VOC
