‘I’m not going back to school tomorrow or any other day’

Grade R pupils walk home after school in Soweto on Wednesday (January 9 2012), the first day of school in Gauteng. Picture: Leon Sadiki/City Press

It was a day filled with tears and joy as more than 200 000 Grade 1 pupils started school for the first time in Gauteng.

Tinyiko Rorwana (5), who cried uncontrollably when her mother, Feziwe, dropped her off at Lukholweni Primary School in Orlando East in Soweto this morning was still in tears after school, saying she preferred playing at home to learning in a classroom.

“I am not going to school tomorrow or any other day,” she said.

“I want to sit at home with my mother,” Rorwana said while trying to hold back her tears.

Nhlanhla Zamisa (6), who refused to go into class at Mathafeni Primary School in Dobsonville this morning, had changed his mind about school when his grandmother fetched him from school later in the day.

“School was not so bad. I made a few friends and we played soccer and it was fun,” he said.

Zamisa said he would be going back to school tomorrow.

And so will his schoolmates, Gugu Ngwenya and Melokuhle Ndebele, both five years old.

Ngwenya said she doesn’t understand why some kids cry when they come to school because it’s fun.

“We learn to sing, draw and colour (in) colour pictures all day. We also eat nice food,” she said.

Her views were shared by her friend, Ndebele.

“I did not cry when I came to school. Even at créche I just went straight in,” she said with a smile.