14 years after court order, government starts building special school in Makhanda

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30-04-2024
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Ground Up
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Amasango Career School’s permanent premises to be completed by 2027

Construction of new premises for the Amasango Career School has started. This is 14 years after the Makhanda High Court ordered the Eastern Cape Department of Education to provide a plan for a permanent premises by 2012.

Department spokesperson Mali Mtima said contractors are expected to finish the construction of temporary premises in June this year, and of permanent premises by November 2027.

Mtima said the department had failed to comply with the 2010 court order because it had struggled to find a suitable site.

The school, founded in 1996, caters for impoverished children, many of them orphans or children living on the street. It has been operating out of an abandoned railway station in the industrial area since 2001. It was registered as a special needs school in 2003.

In 2010, represented by the Legal Resource Centre (LRC), the school won a landmark court case declaring the schools learning environment unconstitutional. But besides the addition of some prefabricated classrooms in 2011, the department did nothing to meet the court order.

After a decade of engaging the department, the school governing body (SGB) went back to court in 2019.

In 2022, Judge Olav Ronaasen ordered the department to meet the 2010 court order. The department then committed to building a permanent school by 2027.

Amasango principal Girlie Shadaya told GroundUp they are being kept up to date on the building progress by the department.

Cameron McConnachie, LRC regional director, said they were pleased construction was underway. He said the department is obliged to report on its progress to the court every three months, and the LRC will monitor the progress of the school’s construction.