Parents remove pupils from schools

When the parents realised that their pleas for a new building were not being answered, they decided to close down the Bale Primary school in June and only allowed the pupils to write their mid-year examinations.

The doors of learning have now been shut down for three weeks. Members of the school governing body (SGB) and officials of the Department of Education met earlier and, according to the parents, they never received the mobile classes promised in May. The decision to close down the school was taken by the parents and the community because they feared for the safety of their children.

The school’s eight classrooms, which were built in 1978 by the community, are now dilapidated.
The parents fear that the building could collapse and injure or kill their children. The walls are cracked, the floor is riddled with potholes and the roof leaks. Teachers and learners have reportedly sustained injuries as a result of the holes in the floor. The pupils also said that the school's roof was on the verge of collapsing.

The chairperson of the SGB, Mr Tshamano Raselabe, said that bushes on the school premises also posed a serious danger to the pupils and teachers as snakes had been seen.”This school is a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode at anytime,” Raselabe said. He said parents had been pleading with the Department of Education to provide them with new classrooms since 1993.

He added that they had alerted the Limpopo Department of Education on numerous occasions in an attempt to fix the school, but to no avail.  He said the conditions at the school made it very difficult for education to proceed smoothly. Raselabe said they always found snakes and scorpions seeking refuge in the dilapidated classes.

The communication manager of the Limpopo Department of Education, Mr  Naledzani Rasila, said that the department was facing a backlog in terms of repairing infrastructure. “It is a well-known fact that our budget has been reduced. This school, however, is one of many schools that will be fixed this year,” promised Rasila.

Date:20 July 2015

By: Kaizer Nengovhela

Kaizer Nengovhela started writing stories for Limpopo Mirror in 2000. Prior to that he had a five year stint at Phala-Phala FM as sports presenter. In 2005 Kaizer received an award from the province's premier as Best Sports Presenter. The same year he was also nominated as Best Sports Reporter by the Makhado Municipality. Kaizer was awarded the Mathatha Tsedu award in 2014.

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