The Gauteng Education Department has appealed to parents not to shut down schools or disrupt learning when disgruntled with the department. This comes after the School Governing Body closed Holy Trinity Secondary School in Winterveldt, north of Pretoria, in search of more teachers, tables, chairs, and classrooms.
The Education Department attributes the late delivery of furniture to overcrowding caused by late applications in Gauteng Schools.
Over 45 learners attend lessons in this grade 10 classroom. They find it hard to concentrate on their work due to the limited furniture at the school.
“We can’t concentrate; we can’t even hear teachers when they teach because they are disrupting us by standing up,” a learner explains.
“Sometimes our lessons are delayed because our fellow learners don’t have chairs in class,” another learner elaborates.
Parents say shutting down the school was the last resort after trying in vain for months to get the provincial department’s attention. They’ve vowed to keep this school shut until their demands are met.
“Always it’s a promise and they don’t respond to our emails to say on this day we will do that, the school will remain closed until we get chairs, tables, teachers and extra classes,” says Lucky Mosana, SGB Treasurer at Holy Trinity Secondary School.
The education department attributes the delays in delivering furniture to schools to an overwhelming number of late applications that hamper their yearly programme.
“There are circumstances that led to the department delivering at this time, because of late applicants and because of the high-pressure areas that received more than what we expect to receive in a school. Those are in the plans, but as well people need to be patient because we need to understand that circumstances lead to delays like this,” says Gauteng Education Department’s Steve Mabona.
The department has appealed to parents to use alternative avenues rather than disrupt learning.
