FURIOUS parents threatened to burn down their children’s primary school yesterday after a snake spat at a pupil.
The parents of pupils at Dundee Junior Secondary School, in the KZN Midlands, said they had been pleading with the education department to build classrooms for six years.
They said the kids have been using mobile classrooms since 1972 and the bad state of the premises attracted snakes.
SGB chairman Gift Gaysman said: “After we complained for a very long time, department officials inspected the school and said they would bring new mobile classes. However, this never happened.”
Gaysman said the school had been in a terrible condition for many years.
“The school is located near bushy open land and we assume that’s where the snakes come from. They hide under the old mobile classrooms.
“This was the first time a snake hurt a pupil, but snakes often come into the classrooms while teaching is in progress.”
He said the pupil was in hospital.
KZN education spokesman Muzi Mahlambi said they were planning to build a new school.
“Yesterday, we brought new mobile classes to be used by pupils as they wait for the school to be built.
“The new classrooms were placed in an area where there are no holes for the snakes to hide in,” he said.
When the SunTeam asked why the department had been ignoring parents for six years, he said: “We are always saying if we had money, we would change every school’s terrible conditions.
“There are many schools in a terrible condition and we’re fixing them one by one.”
