Question No. 1640
Dr JC Klopper-Lourens (Democratic Alliance) to ask the Minster of Basic Education:
1. (a) How many reform schools are in each province to which learners may be sentenced to allow them to complete their primary and secondary schooling and (b) where are these schools located;
2. Whether her department has conducted a study to determine the (a) level of education that children receive in these institutions and (b) success rate achieved by these institutions in respect of reforming the conduct of their learners; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details.
Reply:
1. (a) There are a number of reform schools in provinces. The Eastern Cape has one Reform School unit attached to a School of Industry. KwaZulu-Natal has one Reform School unit attached to the School of Industry. Mpumalanga has a reform school and the Western Cape has two reform schools. Learners sentenced to reform schools from Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Northern Cape and North West are admitted to a reform school in another province.
(b) The Western Cape has two fully fledged reform schools. They are Eureka Special Youth Care Centre in Rawsonville and Kraaifontein Special Youth Care Centre in Kraaifontein. Mpumalanga has one fully fledged reform school (Ethokomala Reform School) in Kinross. Except for Kraaifontein Special Youth Care Centre, which was closed down in 2009, the other two Reform Schools are still in operation and functional.
The two reform school units are at Gali Tembani Youth Care Centre in Queenstown, Eastern Cape and Newcastle Youth Care Centre in Newcastle, KwaZulu Natal. Both these reform school units are operating and functional.
2. (a)
| School's name | Province | Town | Education programmes offered
|
| Gali Tembani | Eastern Cape | Queenstown | Only Life Skills programmes
|
| Newcastle | KwaZulu Natal | Newcastle | Bridging class (Adult Basic education (ABET) level one to four)
|
| Ethokomala | Mpumalanga | Kinross | Bridging class (grades one to three)
|
| Eureka | Western Cape | Rawsonville
| Grades one to nine: life Skills programmes, technical Skills programmes
|
| Kraaifontein | Western Cape | Kraaifontein | N/A, closed down in 2009 |
A study was conducted between November 2009 and April 2010 to determine the level of education that children receive in these institutions. The table above indicates that all of the five reform school programmes (whether a fully fledged school or a reform unit) are offering some form of educational programme.
2 (b) The Department of Basic Education has not measured the extent to which the educational programmes offered reform the conduct of learners. This is the competence of the Department of Social Development.
However, the department is aware that learners who attend these programmes and become successful achieve the skills that are relevant and can contribute to their further development.
Source: Department of Education
