Gauteng Department of Education neglects school infrastructure

6 March 2018

The state of Gauteng school infrastructure is a critical issue, as many schools are in a terrible state of disrepair and overcrowding is a serious challenge.

Due to the problems experienced with the online registration system, many learners were not placed timeously, resulting in severe overcrowding in schools.

This week Kutumela Molefe Primary School in Tshwane was forced to close its doors as parents are unhappy with the overcrowded classrooms. This situation has negatively impacted on teaching and learning at the school as there are 135 learners per classroom.

The Department had promised to deliver mobile classrooms to this school on the 1st March but to date this has never happened.

The parents were then left with no choice but to keep their children out of school as this environment is not conducive for learning. Parents also vowed to keep the school closed until the Department delivers the mobile classrooms as promised.

During the DA’s visit to Goza Primary School in Freedom Park yesterday, we discovered that only one block of ablution facilities is working. Today there is no water at the school as the Department has not yet delivered water. This means that the school will be forced to shut down.

The school is in desperate need of proper sanitation.

For far too long the Department has ignored the plea for decent sanitation at this school. 84 Grade R learners are packed in one classroom, while there are two classrooms not in use.

The failure of the Department in their mandate to maintain and upgrade school infrastructure is affecting learners as it took more than a year to build prefab classrooms at this school.

We still have many asbestos and container classrooms across the province and there is no proper timeline on when the brick and mortar classrooms will be built at these schools.

The DA calls on the Gauteng Department of Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi to immediately address infrastructure challenges faced by our province’s schools. Mobile temporary classrooms must be provided to Kutumela Molefe Primary School in order for teaching and learning to resume. The broken toilets at Goza Primary School must also be repaired.

It is high time that the MEC conducts an infrastructure audit at all the public schools across the province to determine the extent of the challenges being faced. This will help in budget allocation and on prioritising the most affected schools.

The DA believes that our learners’ background must not determine their future, however our learners are being severely hampered by the Department’s failure to provide adequate and quality infrastructure

Issued by Khume Ramulifho, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education, 6 March 2018