A teacher in South Africa has been suspended “with immediate effect” after a photo emerged of her pupils sitting in racially separate groups.
A black parent told the TimesLive news site that she thought her child’s first day at school in had got off to a good start until she saw the image.
“This was meant to be an exciting day for me, but it’s not,” she said.
Local authorities say they “highly condemn” the incident and have removed the teacher “pending investigation”.
The BBC’s Milton Nkosi in South Africa says Schweizer-Reneke is conservative rural town with a population of just under 50,000, surrounded by a farming community made up of mainly white Afrikaners.
Sello Lehare, the education minister for the North West province, said the school’s explanation was that “the learners were separated according to those who could understand Afrikaans and English”.
He added: “We are suspending her [the teacher] because we want the investigation to be fair and free”.
Racism is still deeply embedded in South Africa nearly 25 years after white-minority rule ended.
