Sad day for education, as court ruling set aside a decision to close 17 schools says MEC

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Independent Newspapers

A court ruling to set aside a decision to close 17 schools marked a sad day for education , Western Cape Education MEC Donald Grant has said. File photo: Henk Kruger

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Cape Town - A court ruling to set aside a decision to close 17 schools marked “a sad day for education”, Western Cape Education MEC Donald Grant has said.

On Wednesday Western Cape High Court Judges Andre le Grange and Nape Dolamo set aside Grant's decision, made in October to go into effect from December 31. He and his department were ordered to pay the legal costs of the schools and their governing bodies.

The SA Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu), which was listed as an applicant, was ordered to pay its own costs.

The judges ruled that the reasons given for the closures were brief and that the public consultation process that followed was inadequate.

Le Grange found that the reasons Grant presented for possible closures were largely inadequate and irrational.

“The applicants have demonstrated in the papers filed that the schools the MEC decided to close have remarkable similarities to those he decided to keep open,” he said in the judgment.

“The difference between the MEC's initial and final reasons for closure at certain schools... in my view gives further credence to the applicants' complaint of irrationality.”

The court found the public consultation process an “artificial formality” that fell short of what was reasonably expected.....

  it was gathered that Grant announced last year that 27 schools faced possible closure for various reasons. After representations were made at public hearings, he decided to close 18 schools and transfer pupils to “receiving schools”.