George Herald | Rheenendal bus tragedy affected marks

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Rheenendal bus tragedy affected marks
10:00 (GMT+2), Sat, 18 August 2012

It's not every day that learners get to share their bus ride home with a minister, but on Tuesday, Western Cape Minister of Education Donald Grant insisted on joining them for part of the way. (Photo: Nwabisa Ncudwana.)

KNYSNA NEWS - "We want to take Rheenendal Primary School out of intensive care and move forward," said Western Cape minister of education, Donald Grant on Tuesday, August 14 as he was about to board one of the school buses taking learners home to Karatara.

Grant said there was no question about it - that the bus tragedy which claimed the lives of 14 pupils and the bus driver last year on August 24 at Kasat-se-Drift, definitely had a impact on the poor performance of the learners.

"It is understandable that both staff and pupils were hugely traumatised by what happened, but we are looking forward to see them recover and doing better soon," he said.

The minister, who is responsible for schools in eight districts, explained that he tried to regularly visit 90% of the poorer performing schools. He recently also visited schools in rural areas, not only in Knysna, but George and Riversdal. In the near future Rheenendal Primary School may only teach up to Grade 7, he said, with Grades 8 and 9 being accommodated at local high schools.

An investigation by the Western Cape Department of Education, which took almost a year to complete, was finalised three weeks ago. It was found that no one could be held responsible for the accident.

"What is important, is that the transport of the school is monitored by us on a daily basis," Grant said.

According to the school principal, Sammy Williams a service will be held on August 24 for the pupils and teachers to commemorate the tragedy of last year. No further accidents involving pupils have been reported since.