School and Stay!

[Michael Alexander]

I was wondering about this the other day. here at Spar we often have debates about OPS and boarding school.....

After decades of parents fighting and pleading with the mine, we eventually got a high school.... in fact we got 3 grades worth of high school......

Then the mine reckoned , education was not part of their core business or social responsibility and was looking for a way to "outsource" the school, budgets had to be adhered to and belts to be tightened..... then the big protest came, when the school was going to implement higher school fee's to maintain a solvent business model .

There was much protest, the Minister even turned up..... meetings and tours were held... the minister did not like the idea of OPS having to drop it's standards.... it was not viable to build a state school in Oranjemund either..... So the ministry has pledged a sum of dosh to OPS in order for it to keep operating at the high standards it has....

Then a funny thing started to happen, a lot of parents , instead of keeping their kids at the OPS high school, at great expense to themselves started to ship their offspring off the Boarding schools in the Cape. What was even more disturbing was the number teachers that are planning or have sent their kids to boarding school,

One has to ask the question, what do they know, what do they fear? Are we missing the point? Is this a race thing? Now I know somebody will confront me in the store for saying this, but I feel the question should be asked....

Why have  a number of parents/teachers lost faith in the High School at Oranjemund ?

A prominent politician was discussing this topic with me, he reckons it's not a race issue, but more of an issue of insecurity, nobody is sure of the future of the mine at this stage, a number of people with kids are hanging around, waiting to be offered a VS package to leave, those with the insecurity issues, don't want their kids to start high school here and the mine starts to cut back.....

Plenty to think about....

Oh! and for what it's worth, my daughter is due for High School next year and she has been given the choice to go to high school, but has already decided to stay at OPS, as long as the school maintains it's current standards and her marks stay where they are meant to be..... she shall be staying....... After all...... we are Oranjemunders....

[Bertie Horak]

If there was a high school in my time, I would have stayed, and I'm sure my parents would have supported my decision. The education I got in OPS was definitely tops, and there's no reason why it would've been different in higher standards.
GO OPS!

[Patricia Lotte]

I would definately have stayed on at OPS had I been given the choice. Come to think of it, my mom would never have allowed me to go to boarding if she had been given the choice. I think it was harder for her to see us go off to boarding school than it was for my sister and I.

[Michael Alexander]

Some Folk reckon that the high school has a limited scope and that the outside schools offer a wider choice of subjects and extra mural......