By Amelia Naidoo
Children from the province's poorest regions are still learning under trees despite assurances from the president and the education department since 2005 that the problem would be eradicated soon.
Pupils from grades one, two and four were found learning under trees in the sweltering heat when The Mercury visited Landulwazi Primary School in the rural region of Msinga, north-west of Greytown, on Thursday.
In April 2005, education minister Naledi Pandor gave KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo Province two months to come up with a plan to find alternative accommodation for pupils being taught under trees.
The provincial infrastructure budget for 2005/06 was realigned to ensure that cases in which pupils were being taught outdoors were prioritised, according to Pandor's instructions.
Media reports early last year highlighted the poor condition of Landulwazi Primary and Education Superintendent-General Cassius Lubisi responded that eight new classrooms and eight new toilets would be built. However, no construction has taken place.
On Thursday, older pupils at Landulwazi were crammed into four classrooms, one of which was dilapidated, with two classes and two teachers occupying each room. Some pupils sat on the floor.
In one classroom two teachers were conducting history and mathematics lessons simultaneously while trying not to disrupt each other.
The principal has no office - she also conducts her work under the trees, using a wooden bench as her desk.
Learning outdoors leaves the pupils at the mercy of the elements. Tests and exams are often cancelled because of inclement weather.
It also appears that the education department did not tell the school, which has about 450 pupils, that it had been designated a no-fee school and did not have to collect its annual R30 school fee from pupils.
Education MEC Ina Cronje said this week that the schools in the province with the worst figures for income per household, unemployment rates and levels of education came from the Msinga Municipality, within the Umzinyathi district. All schools in the area were no-fee schools, she said. The region's education and income levels were dismal, with a 23,85 percent literacy level, R2 283,89 average yearly income and a dependency ratio of 89 people per household, said department spokesperson Christi Naude.
The Mercury caught up with Pandor, who was visiting Somashi High School, a few kilometres away, to donate 20 computers and evaluate its state of readiness. She said she was unaware of the situation at Landulwazi.
The problems brought to her attention were the drug and alcohol abuse among pupils in the Msinga area and the low literacy levels.
According to Pandor, the lack of school infrastructure countrywide was because of rains that had caused old buildings to crumble and left pupils without classrooms.
Lubisi repeated this, saying that the "very complex issue of schools under trees was being dealt with".
"Each time there is a natural disaster, there is a possibility that weak structures are washed away."
When confronted with the Landulwazi Primary School case, Lubisi said a sharp increase in pupil numbers had probably caused the lack of classroom space and that there were other schools in the area standing nearly empty.
The Umkhanyakhude Municipality in the north of the province had far worse infrastructure problems and poverty, he said.
Landulwazi Primary would probably receive more classrooms in the 2007/08 infrastructure plan, he said.