Picture: The building at Ikhutseng Primary School dilapidating/Supplied
By OBAKENG MAJE
South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati region calls on the North West Department of Education to provide the Ikhutseng Primary School in Vaaltyn village, near Taung with mobile classrooms. SANCO regional deputy secretary, Mothohela Dikhai said it is disheartening to see the school building in dilapidating condition.
Dikhai said the lives of learners and teachers are at risk because the school building might collapse and cave in on them, while in class.
“It is so sad to see school buildings dilapidated. Even those bricks, were made out of mud and painted upon. So, you will understand how risky the situation would be, especially during the rainy season. The cracks are visible everywhere, hence we urge the department to provide the school with mobile classrooms to avoid tragedy.
“Learners are also using untidy classrooms, which are full of unused and damaged desks. The cupboards are not in good condition and that does not reflect the environment teaching and learning should take place in,” he said.
Dikhai further said the less they talk about the office of the principal, the better. He added that there are no doors in most offices and only curtains were used.
The North West MEC for Education, Viola Motsumi said: “It is our responsibility to ensure that, there are renovations at the Ikhutseng Primary School. We planned to renovate most of our schools during the festive season, however, it was the rainy season and we could not.
“Remember, during my departmental budget speech, I was very clear in terms of community-based projects. So, we are going to concentrate mainly on these community-based projects, where community members will benefit from renovating those schools.”
Motsumi said what they are currently doing, is they have their Conditional Assessment Report, which consists of all the schools that need to be prioritised. She said they have instructed their Infrastructural Team across the province to go and assess different schools.
“So, Ikhutseng Primary School will be one of the schools that I am going to highlight during my meeting and say it must also be proritised it in terms of budget. On the issue of ablution facilities in various schools, we realised that there was serious vandalism in different schools when we re-opened for the 2024 school academic year.
“Now, it is also our responsibility as the department to ensure that everything is intact. However, the unfortunate part is that we have experienced the storm in Bojanala, and imagine what kind of pressure we are working on,” said Motsumi.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on the Department of Basic Education (DBE), Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba, who visited North West schools said they were doing oversight assessment on infrastructure, ablution facilities, Grade R/early childhood development sites monitoring as per migration shift of 2022, delivery of learner-teacher study material, nutrition, learner transport, special schools support amongst others.
Mbinqo-Gigaba said the committee generally takes a sample of a few schools in a district and looks at them to get a broad view of schools in different categories.
“So far we are happy with what we have seen. It was clear that teaching and learning are happening with teaching as well as learners in the classrooms. A conducive environment for teaching and learning exists at the schools we visited,” she said.
The Guardian 