Parents arriving with their children at Diepsloot Combined School on the first day of the academic year and those making enquiries about placement issues were frustrated after being denied access to the school premises on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Parents said they arrived as early as 7.30am and found the school gates closed, leaving them and their children waiting outside for about 30 minutes. <\/p>\n
At about 8am the principal opened the gates but allowed only pupils to enter, instructing all parents and guardians to return at 2pm when the school closes.<\/p>\n
According to parents, the principal refused to engage with them, saying his \u201ccustomers are inside the schoolyard\u201d and parents should leave immediately, regardless of whether they needed to submit stationery, fix placement issues or escort their children to their classrooms.<\/p>\n
Frustrated parents said they were not informed of specific inquiry times and were shocked by the strict enforcement on the first day of school, a day they said is often marked by confusion, late arrivals and traffic congestion.<\/p>\n
Parent Thembi Ntini said she has been battling since December to secure placement for her daughter, who is entering grade 1.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sick, stressed and supposed to be recovering but I\u2019m being chased away. I\u2019m working, and I explained this, but no-one is listening.<\/p>\n
\u2014 \u00a0Thembi Ntini, parent<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter did grade R at the school, and I applied for her to continue here, but she was placed at a school I didn\u2019t apply for. I\u2019ve been coming here since December trying to fix this,\u201d said Ntini.<\/p>\n
She said the principal had told her to come to the school on the first day so they could assist her, but she was instead told to leave and return at 2pm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sick, stressed and supposed to be recovering, but I\u2019m being chased away. I\u2019m working, and I explained this, but no-one is listening,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Another parent said they were denied access when trying to enquire about uniforms and stationery.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were never told what time we should come. How can he close the gates on the first day of school? We arrived at 7.30am, and the gates were closed,\u201d the parent said.<\/p>\n
Parents also questioned why grade R and grade 1 pupils who arrived late were treated differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t want our children to enter, saying they were late and should come back after school. But why didn\u2019t he do this to returning pupils? Who shuts out grade 1s and grade Rs on the first day?\u201d one parent asked.<\/p>\n
A mother described the experience as traumatic for her child.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is supposed to be an exciting day. My child has to go into a new school alone. I can\u2019t even walk my child to the classroom,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Despite being told to leave, parents said they would remain at the school gates until 2pm to submit paperwork, enquire about placements and hand in stationery.<\/p>\n
Sowetan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parents arriving with their children at Diepsloot Combined School on the first day of the academic year and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[14387,15427,15425,15426,15428,131],"class_list":{"0":"post-25007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-first-day-of-school","9":"tag-grade-1-placement-challenges","10":"tag-parent-frustration-diepsloot","11":"tag-principal-refuses-engagement","12":"tag-school-gate-closure","13":"tag-south-africa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}