MORE than 1 000 primary school pupils and about 20 teachers are being forced to use two mobile toilets at Dunoon Primary School.
Since the Cape Times reported on conditions at the school three weeks ago, the original toilets – now cracked and leaking – have also stopped working.
Parents and teachers have described ablution facilities as unhygienic.
The prefabs, where the pupils are housed, were erected on a sports field, next to where a new R64 million school was built.
Although construction was completed in May and the school equipped with all the facilities of a modern school, no lessons have taken place in the new building because of a problem with the water installation.
The water pressure is too low and dangerous, says the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).
Teachers, parents and pupils are upset about the situation, saying their hands are tied because they have repeatedly complained to the school principal and the Education Department, as well as their political representatives in the community. But they say their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
One of the parents, Sinothando Hermanus, said: “The situation is so bad that a parent thinks twice before sending a child to school for fear they might get sick.
“Having no toilets and having nothing done about the situation is unacceptable.”
An educator at the school, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “The smell from the broken toilets in unbearable. No human being deserves to teach or learn like this.”
According to WCED director of communications Paddy Attwell, the state-of-the-art school needs good water pressure to operate optimally.
He said the department could take ownership of the school only when the water pressure problem was solved.
@PhalisoSandiso