S. Africans protest schools

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa Police fired tear gas Tuesday todisperse a march by black children who were protesting conditions intownship schools.

The incident took place outside a high school in the blacktownship of Soweto on the eve of a planned takeover of three vacantwhite schools.

The National Education Coordinating Committee said it hadplanned today's occupations "as a last-ditch attempt . . . to find aninterim solution" to South Africa's education crisis.

Despite the repeal of apartheid laws, the country's educationalsystem remains segregated.

Several white public schools have been closed because ofdeclining enrollment, while schools in black townships often areseverely crowded and dilapidated.

Amon Msane of the Education Coordinating Committee saidthousands of students from black schools would be bused to the vacantwhite schools to call attention to the problem.

"The campaign is planned for one day only, and thereafter wewill wait and see how the government responds to our demand to openthese schools to children of all races," Msane told a news conferenceTuesday.

About 150 children took part in the protest outside Orlando WestHigh School in Soweto.

Also Tuesday, a police report said officers shot to death oneyouth and wounded five when black students tried to take over a newlyopened black high school. The motive for the attempted takeover wasnot clear.