Humansdorp Secondary School has been closed indefinitely because of a myriad of issues at one of the largest high schools in the Kouga Municipal Area.
The school has close on 2000 learners who are now sitting at home as the school is unable to function properly because eight teachers have still not received their permanent letters of appointment from the Bhisho Department of Education.
School Governing Body vice-chairperson Jaques Alexander says the Department of Education missed last Friday's deadline to confirm these teachers' permanent appointments.
He told AlgoaFM News that the SGB and more than 200 parents had agreed at a meeting earlier this week that the affected teachers cannot be expected to carry on working for free.
"The rest of the educators are in solidarity with these teachers and agree that it's totally unfair that they continue working without payment. With these eight teachers now staying away more than 300 kids are sitting in class without an educator and that is a violation of the learners' rights."
At the time of publication, Alexander said they had received no feedback from the Department of Education despite a commitment that the eight teachers would receive their offers of appointment in writing by this Tuesday. The decision had thus been taken to close the school until further notice.
He said the school also had to deal with power cuts due to non-payment by the Department of Education, but this issue had since been temporarily resolved.
"It was also resolved at Monday's meeting that when Humansdorp Secondary does re-open, parents will support the teachers by working in shifts to protect the learners from another scourge, gangsterism and ongoing violence," said Alexander.
"Parents will support the teachers by conducting patrols throughout the school day. They'll man the school gates and ensure that learners are in their classes and there's no running around on the school grounds.
"This is something that will be ongoing and we will make sure that discipline is instilled at our school again. We will then take this initiative out to the community, but first, we want to fix our school and claim back our school."
Teachers and parents gathered outside the school on Monday.
