Betty Moleya
Pretoria - The Department of Basic Education had some explaining to do regarding dilapidated infrastructure at the 70-year-old Relebogile Primary School during a meeting with parents yesterday.
Schooling has been put on hold until a solution is found, with parents saying they had lost patience with the department because despite the promise of a new school in 2018 there was still no action.
Since 2018 the school, in Swartdam in the North West, has been a cause for serious concern for the community.
After halting classes, parents met with department officials to discuss cracked walls, the poor state of toilets, broken structures, broken windows and bare electrical wires.
After the meeting, parents said boys did not have toilets and had to relieve themselves in an open field.
In December, a pupil was injured after a mobile classroom was blown away by wind.
There are also no security guards at the school.
Schooling has been put on hold until a solution has been found.
The parents said despite the promise of a new school there was still no action. They had been were told an estimated R60 million had been budgeted for construction of a new school.
However, the department said construction of the new school was set to start in June.
Parent and community member Zakes Mataboge said their main demand was for the department to build the new school, as the old one could collapse at any time.
“The department once made a promise that it would build a school in the 2017/2018 financial year.”
He said if the department did not deliver as promised they would protest until all issues had been resolved.
“The problems here started in 2015, and issues with the toilets in 2017.”
Mataboge said parents removed their children from the school because of the dilapidated infrastructure.
Elias Malindi, spokesperson for the North West Department of Education, said the process to provide the new school had begun and a contractor had been appointed.
“We can estimate that in the next financial year (2022/2023) in April, the school will be built after then.
“Normally we put in budgets which schools will be built when, and Relebogile has been put in for 2022/2023.”
Malindi said they were aware of the problems at the school, and have provided eight temporary mobile classrooms.
“The school has problems with the old building, we have seen that the building has cracks and we have moved learners to the temporary mobile classrooms so that learning can continue.”
Pretoria News