Johannesburg - The DA in Gauteng said it was appalled to find that there were some children in the province who attend school only five days a month due to overcrowding.
This comes after the party conducted an oversight inspection at the old and new Mayibuye Primary Schools in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni.
Khume Ramulifho, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education in Gauteng, said although there is a rotational learning and teaching system, the number of learners in classrooms remains high. Therefore, that limits the number of schooling days for certain grades.
IOL reported last year that three years after the state-of-the-art Mayibuye Primary School was completed, learners have not been able to occupy it and had to be accommodated in overcrowded containers elsewhere.
The building, which cost the state R83-million, has since deteriorated as it is built on a wetland.
Ramulifho said the old school which the children currently use is overcrowded and in dire need of additional mobile classrooms.
He said the current container classrooms are also old and dilapidated, with some having broken holes in the floor, causing danger for both learners and teachers.
As a result, he said, they were informed that one of the teachers has been injured as a result.
“The ablution facilities are not adequate to accommodate the number of learners and educators. There are 1891 learners sharing six toilets, while 85 members of staff are also sharing six toilets,” he said.
“Poor implementation of this school project is costing taxpayers more money than budgeted for. It is estimated that they need more than R36m to complete the project.
“The new school is also built on top of the sewer system which clearly indicates a lack of proper planning and consultation from the local municipality by the Department of Infrastructure Development and Property Management (DID).
“The state of the new school is terrible and has been abandoned, with the pavements full of weeds and the grass left to grow, while three toilet doors have been stolen.
“The longer this school remains unoccupied, the sooner it will turn into a white elephant and further become a target for vandalism, theft, and burglary.
“It is completely unacceptable for learners to only attend schooling five days a month while other grades at the same school are attending two weeks a month.”
Ramulifho said he spoke to Tasneem Motara, MEC of the Department of Infrastructure Development and Property Management (DID) in Gauteng who then replied that the school will be handed over when the construction is completed as the project is on hold awaiting the allocation of the required additional funds.
“The DA calls on the Gauteng MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi to urgently intervene at the Mayibuye Primary School to ensure that the environment is conducive for learning and teaching and that all grades are given equal time to attend school.
“We also call on both the DID and the Department of Education to speed up the process of completing this school so that the learners can be moved to a proper conducive environment for schooling,” he said.
IOL