Picture: The Grade 12 learners from Mamutla Secondary School were allegedly chased away by the school principal/Supplied
By OBAKENG MAJE
A few Grade 12 learners from Mamutla Secondary School in Kameelpuit village, near Taung were allegedly chased away from school for buying their own uniforms.
It is alleged that these learners, ordered school uniforms from the tailor who was appointed by the school, but it took six months before the uniforms were delivered. So, this forced learners to look for alternatives by buying their own uniforms, which were similar to school uniforms.
However, this allegedly rubbed the school principal the wrong way. He allegedly chased these learners away and ordered them to look for their own schools.
One of the parents, Kegomoditswe Piet said, the school sold the uniform for around R1000, while the learners bought the same uniforms for around R550. Piet said they penned a letter of complaint to the circuit manager raising dissatisfaction against the school principal.
“As parents, we writing this complaint letter to the circuit manager complaining about the challenges we are facing at Mamutla Secondary School.
“The school principal has chased two learners from school because they bought school uniforms elsewhere not from the school. Other learners who endorsed the same uniform were also chased away,” she said.
Piet further said, the parents decided to buy school uniforms from elsewhere because the uniforms from the school took more than six months to arrive. She added that there are also parents who are still owed uniforms money by the school.
“The school principal endorsed the same uniform and he only had a problem because the same uniform was not bought from the school-appointed tailor.
“He also accused these learners of theft for using the school emblem without his consent. I think the Grade 12 learners should have access to the school emblem. So, I do not see any problem with that,” said Piet.
According to Piet, the matter was resolved a few days ago.
Meanwhile, the North West Department of Education spokesperson, Elias Malindi said: “It is important that we put everything into perspective and state the facts clearly. The uniform in question is not prescribed for all the grades, but is a Grade 12 preferred uniform for the year 2023.
“The principal never chased away any learner, but informed the two of them to bring parents to clarify some issues such as who authorised the use of the emblem without consulting the school administration and the School Governing Body (SGB).”
Malindi said, the school was running the risk of every Grade 12 learner designing their own patterns and different colours, which would not serve a purpose. He said the whole exercise of executing different patterns, colours and etc was going to defeat the exercise of uniformity.
“Learners in question were requested to bring their parents for purposes of clarifying the situation and one parent who responded conceded to the issues raised by the school.
“We fully believe that the matter is blown out of proportion and the SGB met and resolved the matter and that uniformity will prevail,” said Malindi.
The Guardian 