Pretoria - The Department of Education is finding itself in a difficult spot trying to eradicate overcrowding at Kutumela Molefi Primary School as the community it caters to expanded significantly and well into the land earmarked to build a new school.
To make matters worse, parents have been blocking the gate since last Wednesday after rejecting a proposal for pupils to be transported in a bus to take classes at another school that is 22km away.
This has divided parents between those who want their children to temporarily occupy classes at Boschkop Primary School and those against the proposal, claiming that their children were subjected to discriminatory treatment at the other school when they took classes there previous.
The school has had an overcrowding problem for years because it is located on farm land on the outskirts of Mamelodi, but with land being a challenge in the country, people have occupied the land in the form of two informal settlements: Skierlik Mountain View and Lethabong.
Spokesperson for the Department of Education Steve Mabona said while overcrowding was a current reality, the department attempted to resolve it by purchasing land to build a new school, making plans to migrate four mobile classrooms from another school.
This included a proposal to relocate Grade 7 learners in the interim to Boschkop Primary School, and giving to the schools funds to build four new classrooms, which are expected to be concluded in the middle of March 2022.
"The proposal to relocate Grade 7 learners combined with the additional mobile classroom and the new classrooms that are being built will substantially alleviate but not eliminate overcrowding.
"Still, the school will continue to struggle to accommodate all learners as the community has grown beyond the carrying capacity of the school," said Mabona.
He said in the long run the construction of a new school is the ultimate answer to respond to the demands for space. However, this was hampered by the people currently occupying the land.
"MEC Panyaza Lesufi has previously requested the community to negotiate with people occupying the land earmarked for the new school to move."
Mabona said while the department was trying to intervene, the reluctance of the community to agree to temporary relocation of Grade 7 learners coupled with the occupation of the land presented difficult but not insurmountable problems.
"We plead with the parents of the learners at the affected school to accept the proposal by the department, as an interim measure to ensure that the children do not miss any more learning time," Mabona added.
Pretoria News