Cape Times E-dition

Academics support Heathfield High principal

For the full list of the academic staff, visit www.iol.co.za/capetimes

IN SUPPORT of Heathfield High School principal Wesley Neumann who has been taken into a disciplinary hearing by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), close to 50 academic staff from 10 SA higher education institutions have added their voices in an urgent appeal to the new WCED head, Brent Walters.

The global Covid-19 pandemic has confronted us with numerous daunting challenges that we have never encountered before.

School education has been at the forefront of responses to the pandemic.

The school sector has had to make hard life-and-death decisions about the health and safety of our school communities – our students, staff, and parents.

In mid-2020, after an initial period of complete lockdown, schools and school authorities in the Western Cape and other provinces were grappling with the question of the return of students and teachers to classrooms – do we return at all?

Parents, teachers and learners were confronted with uncertainty amid the risk of infection, illness and death.

They grappled with questions about when, how and under which conditions they should resume teaching and learning in safe ways, and whether they should go back to class.

These were dilemmas being faced all over the country and, indeed, the world.

Teachers and provincial education authorities agreed that we need to be guided by the best scientific advice.

Scientists though were themselves divided and uncertain about the wisdom of the reopening of schools or the efficacy of staggering teaching days, where only certain grades attended school on a particular day.

In this climate of concern and uncertainty, the national Department of Education instructed schools to be re-opened on June 1 and 8, 2020.

Heathfield High School consulted parents, teachers, students and the school governing body (SGB) about what they thought the best course of action would be.

The consultations with all the school stakeholders were extensive and participative. The decision not to return to school on the designated date was a collective decision made by the school governing body.

Agreeing with the need to safeguard his learners and teachers, Mr Wesley Neumann, the school principal, adhered to this decision.

Mr Neumann was subsequently unfairly charged with misconduct for implementing the SGB’s collective decision not to open the school.

In September 2020, he was charged by the WCED on 12 counts of alleged “insolent behaviour towards Brian Schreuder”, head of education at the time.

Mr Neumann is currently appearing at a WCED disciplinary committee hearing. We believe these charges and the ongoing and protracted disciplinary hearing are grossly unfair, unjust and selective.

They detract from efforts to create an environment at the school conducive to learning, teaching and administration.

In these uncertain and unprecedented times, the matter of school attendance should be resolved through collaborative and ongoing discussion and decision-making in the interest of the school’s learners.

Wesley Neumann should be applauded not punished for his engagement with the school community about the safest way forward at that difficult time.

The fact that the disciplinary hearing has had no less than 16 sittings to date seems to indicate that

the WCED is struggling to make the charges Mr Neumann faces stick.

In addition, the presiding officer of the hearing refused to have a teacher witness testify against the WCED.

A member of the Labour Relations Department of the WCED visited this teacher at his home and claimed the WCED would offer him a post if he testified against Mr Neumann.

The teacher refused to do this, and this blatant act of bribery has been reported to the police.

We call on the WCED to drop these punitive, ill-considered and illegitimate charges against Mr Neumann.

We also call on all fellow academics to support this demand for the withdrawal of these unjust charges.

We are concerned about the negative impact this action has on the functioning of the school, the education of students, the morale of the teachers and the stress on the parent body.

As an educator who has a deep concern for the well-being of his students and teachers, Mr Neumann should be allowed to do what he does best.

That is, to lead a reputable school that recently celebrated 60 years of sterling work and produced many prominent members of our society.

Let us work together and debate, not discipline and punish.

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2021-05-07T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-07T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://capetimes.pressreader.com/article/281612423272465

African News Agency