FOR pupils to perform well, they need to be taught in a proper school.
But this is not the case at Ratjeke Primary School in Ga-Ratjeke Village, outside Bolobedu, in Limpopo.
This is because more than 200 pupils are forced to have lessons outside because many classrooms have collapsed.
Angry parents, who are worried about their children’s safety, said they asked the feel let down by the Department of Education.They said they Department of Education to build classrooms countless times, but nothing happened.
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The school was built in 1978 by parents using mud bricks.
“The school has two blocks consisting of four classrooms each.
“Six classrooms were damaged in 2015 by heavy rain and pupils were left with only two classrooms.
“We were provided with used and damaged mobile classrooms,” said parent Thomas Mohale (33).
Frustration over the conditions at the school led to some of the mobile classrooms getting burnt in May.
The school was also shutdown for more than a week by parents.
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A Grade 3 pupil told Daily Sun going to school is like torture.
“We can’t stand the weather and it’s hard to concentrate,” he said.
Another pupil said: “It is sad that government always advises the youth to go to school, but they are failing to fix our school.”
A pupil told Daily Sun: that government must act quickly.“The dilapidated buildings pose a serious danger to us.Every time I see the building, my heart skips a beat because I fear it might collapse.”
An angry 45-year-old resident said: they set alight the mobile classrooms to push the department to act as soon as possible.
“We wanted to show the department that we are serious.“The mobile classrooms were alight so they could build new proper classrooms for our children.”
Jacques Smalle, Limpopo Democratic Alliance spokesman on education, agreed that the conducted an oversight inspection at the school. Heschool was had aged and was dilapidated.
“There are also water issues and there is no scholar transport. It is clear that the school has been severely neglected and is a victim of poor monitoring and evaluation by the department.We have requested the department to urgently provide mobile classrooms so no pupils are forced to learn outside,” said Smalle. and that villagers be urgently addressed with regards to plans for the school,” said Smalle.
Education spokeswoman Tidimalo Chuene said: the school was given six mobile classrooms while waiting for construction to begin.“This is wrong and a step backwards in addressing the infrastructure challenges. “The school is on our priority list for infrastructure development projects for 2022/23 at a new site which will cater for the merged Ratjeke and Mahekgwe primary schools.”
He said they received reports that two mobiles were burnt on 17 May.
Chuene said the construction project is planned for the 2022/23 financial year.
