Rustenburg - The North West department of education is in the process of issuing a tender for the repair of the Leeudoringstad School for the Deaf and Volks High School, both of which were gutted by fire last year, the department said on Thursday.
“As it is, the department is in the process of issuing a tender for repairing schools which is expected to be out on i-tender, Government Gazette and e-portal by Friday, [26 February 2016 ]to speed up the reconstruction process,” said spokesperson Elias Malindi.
Three girls died of smoke inhalation when a fire broke at the girls hostel of the Leeudoringstad Secondary School for the Deaf in August last year.
A week later, a fire broke out in the boys hostel at Volks High School in Potchefstroom.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the North West on Tuesday said it was concerned with the lack of urgency demonstrated by the department in starting repairs at Volks High School in Potchefstroom and the North West School for the Deaf in Leeudoringstad.
“The DA was informed that Volks High School is experiencing severe overcrowding and that the boys from the burnt-down hostel were moved to a hostel which was already occupied by other learners. Resources are stretched, the live-in space is too little to accommodate all the learners. This severely compromises the learners’ education process,” said Tutu Faleni, DA spokesperson on education in North West.
“The DA was notified by an official of the department of education that no repair work had been done at the North West School of the Deaf either and that learners are still accommodated in a school at Wolmaransstad,” Faleni said.
“The responsible official who is mandated to start the renovations and repairs of the school’s infrastructure informed the DA that the department of education has not classified the repair work of both schools as an ’emergency’ and therefore repairs at the schools will take that much longer to start.”
African News Agency
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