Several truant Blikkiesdorp children have returned to classes but many others are still out of school, a community leader says.
|||Blikkiesdorp continues to have a problem with truant school children and the education department blames gangs and drugs.
While a number of children have been placed, others are still out of school. Some have dropped out to help support their families financially or to look after siblings while their parents are at work or job hunting.
In September community leader Beverley Jacobs told the Cape Argus that she knew of 22 children who were truants.
She said the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) had helped to place some of them, but there were a number of reasons why many others were still not in school.
Bronagh Casey, the spokeswoman for Education MEC Donald Grant, said the department had been provided with the names of the pupils who were truant or who had not been registered at school or their home addresses.
Letters were sent to their parents informing them of their constitutional obligation to send their children to school and giving contact details for assistance.
“We have made great progress in enrolling unregistered learners on the list as well as encouraging truant learners to attend school. However, the system is evolving all the time with new learners dropping out or coming into the area.”
Casey said the main reasons for drop-outs in Blikkiesdorp were related to drugs and gangsterism.
She said the WCED was assisting three children that had just arrived in the area to find placements and two children, aged 14 and 17, who were not attending school.
Jacobs said that in many cases, social problems were to blame for truancy. She said some parents were keeping their children at home, but in other cases parents were told that schools were full.
She said one mother had said that her daughter, who had been out of school and then returned, was not attending classes again because she didn’t like the skirt and wanted a specific brand of school shoe.
Casey said Safe Schools had 23 safety fieldworkers whose duties included dealing with truancy.
“When truancy is reported to the district office, the parents are contacted and an appointment is set for a home visit by a safety worker.
“At this visit, the parents are made aware of their responsibility to ensure that the learner returns to school, citing the relevant law.”
Casey said instances of pupils dropping out of school because they were unable to pay fees were not widespread. Parents could qualify for fee exemptions if the school fees were more than 10 percent of their combined annual income. - Cape Argus
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