EDEN PARK – A meeting was held at Eden Park Secondary school on April 22 because it was urgent, according to Larry Varrie.
On May 16 Larry said, “I came to the RECORD to bring my side of the story, because regardless of the name not being mentioned, people already knew who it was. So that is why I had to tell my side.”
The deputy principal (chair person of the meeting) introduced the principal for his presentation. “The principal set a church atmosphere in order to avoid conflict, knowing there was conflicting issues that needed to be raised by parents,” said Larry.
The principal would use this atmosphere so that it would be difficult for parents to raise burning issues which included:
Most of the learners failed English, matriculants and children who take English first language, and they could fail exams.
According to Larry, there was another parent focusing on the English issue, and he had focused on the mathematics issue.
He responded to the principal regarding a statement made by the principal about the maths issue.
According to Larry, the principal said everything is under control, and the school would pass, and that by now some of the parents knew that there was an issue with the maths, and that he was not at liberty to discuss the maths situation. The principal carried on with the presentation.
“I was already disgusted by the situation when the parents applauded him regarding how important English and maths was, without him guaranteeing that everything was under control, including maths and English, while more than half of the kids failed English and there has been no maths teacher since February 4,” said Larry on May 15 to the RECORD.
“I said in the meeting that we cannot allow the principal to get away with a short statement,” he said.
Larry insisted that the principal explain why there has been no Mathematics teacher, as it’s a gateway subject to university and that according to him, parents could not allow the principal as the accounting officer of the school not to disclose what the real issues were.
According to Larry, the children were not allowed to attend the parents meeting to hear their side of the story.
“The children have been robbed of education,” said Larry. “I want to know why the parents are still left in the dark?”
“Mr Varrie knows what the truth is. I would rather you get the information about what happened that evening from parents attending the meeting,” said Mr Louw.
