While many pupils were greeted with the excitement that comes with their first day of school, pupils at Alexander High School were greeted with chaos and confusion. Instead of being in the assembly line at 8am waiting to be welcomed by the principal, they were standing outside waiting to be let into the school.
Ironically, the commotion was the doing of their parents and this in fact was done, according to them, for the educational benefit of their children.
Disgruntled parents who form part of the community organisation “Concerned Parents” decided to lock the school gates on Wednesday and not allow any teacher or pupil into the school until their concerns were heard. This, they said, was a desperate attempt by parents to finally be heard after being ignored by the department, school governing body and school management.
“Where is all the money going?” they asked. “Why is the school in this condition? When will these issues be dealt with?”
They expressed grievance at the fact that none of these questions were being answered and that there was no one willing to take responsibility for the dire condition of the school.
Dricca Fox, parent of a grade 11 pupil, explained: “We closed these gates because we are angry, we have been fighting with this school since last year. There are no windows; no doors… Have you seen the toilets? There is only one tap in this school and even that doesn’t work.
“The government is paying R1, 6 million to fix this school every year. But what has been done?”
Fox went on to accuse the school's governing body and school management of being corrupt and acting in their own interest instead of working toward improving the school’s conditions.
Two teachers reiterated what the parents had mentioned and confirmed concerns of corruption.
One said: “There is a lot of corruption and mismanagement of funds. There are certain members we know who are responsible. We’ve been receiving money for the past three years yet nothing has been done. One of the parents’ main concerns therefore is actually to get rid of this SGB (school governing body) and SMT (school management team) and get organisations that will work at uplifting this school, not uplifting themselves.“
Deputy minister of communication, Obed Bapela, agreed that there are issues of distress that need immediate attention and assured the pupils that something will be done to alleviate primary concerns but did not condone the manner in which parents handled the situation.
He told an agreeing crown of pupils: “Problems have to be attended to today. We are aware of the situation and we know that they must be dealt with. We appeal to the DA council of this area to help get this done. But we do not condone the action of the parents because if you are going to solve a problem, you do not do it by locking the gates. A learning centre should indeed be a learning centre.”
Gauteng education spokesperson, Khume Ramulifho, mentioned that this type of disruption was already anticipated.
He said: “We expected this. This issue was raised last year when I put these questions to the MEC but received no response. It is alleged that the SGB used the money they received from the department, as well as the money they receive from organizations that use the school on weekends, for personal gain instead of using it for school repairs and maintenance. Parents have tried to contact the MEC who never responded. We consider this a dysfunctional school, it is not being run properly.”
According to Ramulifho, the plan of action now is to get an immediate addressing of issues starting with the infrastructure. The DA council will also recommend to the MEC to establish a task team to set up a performance target and look at aspects needed to improve the school and have these teams regularly report and provide feedback on progress. Ramulifho says that there will also be a continuation into the investigation of how funds are being utilised. - IOL