Johannesburg - Another study camp for Joburg matriculants has been accused of substandard conditions.
This time, there are complaints of pupils being forced to sleep on the floor and having to eat leftovers.
One matriculant from Coronationville Secondary School in Joburg told The Star that the drama started even before they left the school on Monday.
“The bus was supposed to leave at 8am but we only ended up leaving at around 6pm.”
Once the group arrived at the study camp in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, she said they, together with pupils from a schools in Riverlea and Noordgesig, were subjected to bad conditions.
“There are about 11 of us who have to share a room and one shower. I even had to sleep on a broken bed,” she said.
The schoolgirl added that male pupils had to sleep on the floor and were given leftovers to eat for breakfast. Despite complaining to parents who are chaperoning the study camp, the conditions failed to improve.
She said this prompted an intervention from the school’s principal and department officials. The officials are expected to visit the camp on Wednesday.
Things also turned bad at another study camp in Cullinan, east of Pretoria.
The conditions were relayed by Bernaley Rosenberg, a pupil of Willow Crescent Secondary School in Eldorado Park, who said they had been taken to Cullinan despite their parents being told they were camping in the Magaliesberg.
Once there, Bernaley said, they too were forced to sleep packed like sardines in tiny, unhygienic rooms.
“There wasn’t enough accommodation for all of us, so they forced about 20 of us to sleep in a small first-aid room.
“The place was so dirty and unhygienic that some of us found cockroaches in our food. We were lucky if we got to drink water,” she said.
Despite pleading with their teachers and officials at the camp, their complaints fell on deaf ears.
So the pupils took matters into their own hands and called their parents for help.
Bernaley’s parents were accompanied by a convoy of minibus taxis so that they could pick up other pupils.
The pupils weren’t allowed to take cellphones or other devices with them to the camp. Bernaley was able to call her parents from another parent’s phone – some parents had gone to act as chaperones.
Although some of the pupils decided to stay until the study camp ends of Friday, most of them returned home.
Both camps were meant to be week-long intensive study programmes to prepare pupils for the upcoming matric finals.
Gauteng Education Department spokeswoman Phumla Sekhonyane said the department had received several complaints about the study camps in the province.
This had prompted Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi to send a team to inspect all the campsites in Gauteng.
“From their report we will craft a way forward,” Sekhonyane said.
@Karishma_Dipa
The Star