St Marys Primary School

St. Marys School was built in 1946 by the Catholic Church. It is situated between two townships namely, Nyanga and New Crossroads. It admits children from both townships and Philippi Informal Settlement another nearby township. In 1947 the school received a small government subsidy but was withdrawn in 1954. Classes went from Sub A to Std 6 with an enrolment of 500 pupils. Between the years 1972 and 1990, the Dominican Sisters were involved in the school both in leadership and in the classroom. A past pupil of this school (St. Marys) took over the leadership in 1990. At the same time of the introduction of the new Education Bill, negotiations were being carried out between the Church and Western Cape Education Department concerning the status of the school. These negotiations resulted in St. Marys becoming a public school on private property in July 1996, under the following conditions: 1) government rents the property while the owner maintains the property; and 2) teachers ar...