Johannesburg – As public schools opened for the 2017 academic year on Wednesday, teachers at Phuthini Secondary School in Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal, said they were still in the dark as to when working conditions at their dilapidated school would be improved in line with regulations.
The rural school, under Uthukela District, remains one of the most underprivileged learning centres in the province, months after a deadline to meet the norms and standards for schools infrastructure lapsed in November last year.
According to "Regulations Relating to Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure" in the South African Schools Act, it is now illegal for any school in South Africa not to have access to water, electricity or toilets, and for any school to be built of wood, mud, asbestos, or zinc.
However, African News Agency (ANA), found that Phuthini Secondary School is made up of only six asbestos classrooms and a staff room.
The principal's office, which was built with prefabricated modular structures, also functions as a makeshift kitchen to prepare meals for learners.
None of the classrooms are electrified and some learners have no desks.
There is no running water at the school and pupils and teachers depend on Jojo tanks for water.
The four long-drop toilets in the school are reserved for teachers and girl learners, leaving boy learners to relieve themselves in the bushes.
A member of the School Governing Body (SGB), who is also a parent, told ANA that although the school was opened as a Quintile-4 school in 2011, it had since been downgraded to a Quintile-2 school, owing to the decline in the number of learners.
According to the quintile system that was part of the National Norms and Standards introduced in 1998 to improve equity in education, government schools in Quintile-1 are designated as the poorest institutions while Quintile-5 schools have been denoted as the best.
The quintile to which a school is assigned is based on the rates of income, unemployment and illiteracy within the school's catchment area.
The SGB member, who didn't want to be named, said that the lack of infrastructure at Phuthini Secondary School had also affected the teacher-learner ratio, now standing at one teacher per 35 learners.
When the school opened in 2011, it had more than 500 learners but the number had declined to 292 learners by the end of 2016.
"Teachers are leaving this school in numbers. The school only has 11 teachers now. Subjects like maths and science were only introduced last year as there were no teachers qualified to teach them," said the SGB member.
"There is a challenge of retaining quality teachers in a school like this because they just feel depressed by the circumstances under which they have to work and the principal cannot do anything when they want to leave."
The parent also claimed that the SGB had written to the District Office, the Head of the Department, as well as to the Office of the MEC on numerous occasions, but no assistance had come forth so far.
The school's principal, Vusimuzi Cele, declined to comment saying he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Despite the dire conditions, the school managed to record a good 89.9 percent matric pass rate in 2016.
Teachers at the school declined to be interviewed on record, but said their plight had fallen on deaf ears.
The KZN department of education has been failed to respond to repeated requests for comment over the past month.