20 of the schools in the Western Cape marked for closure at the end of the year have taken legal action to stop the Western Cape Education Department’s plan from occurring.

Through the legal assistance organised by the Save Our Schools campaign, the 20 schools urged the Western Cape High Court to persuade the provincial education department to drop their decision of the closures. The application will further be dealt with in court by the 30th of November.

Of the 20 schools, 16 are within rural districts and 4 in urban areas. The schools were identified by the province’s MEC Donald Grant whose decision was based mainly on the poor infrastructure of the schools, declining number of learners and multi-grade teaching.

Protest action against the plan has been generated by political organisations including the ANC, COSATU, SADTU and civil society organisations such as Equal Education.

If the closure occurs, students from these schools will be transferred and enrolled to other schools by the WCED. The land of these closed schools would then revert back to the Department of Education and the Department of Public Works.