A day after staging a protest outside Bovet Primary School over chronic overcrowding and deteriorating infrastructure, concerned parents returned on Tuesday for a high-level meeting with the school principal, the school governing body, and officials from the Gauteng department of education.

Meanwhile, other parents were still protesting outside, underscoring the depth of frustration among families who say the school has been struggling with severe capacity and resource shortages since at least 2024.

Read more: Parents stage protest outside Bovet Primary over overcrowding and infrastructure challenges

Olivia Ndlovu, one of the parents who participated in the discussions, emphasised that the conditions inside the school are not conducive for learning. “Our children are sitting on the floor. There is a shortage of tables. At least three learners share a single table and two chairs.”

She also highlighted the dire state of sanitation facilities, pointing out to mobile toilets that are unsanitary, with water on the floor and doors that are broken.

Compounding the infrastructure problems, Ndlovu said the textbooks learners are given are torn and incomplete, missing certain pages. She further expressed concern that learners have entered the second term without receiving their term 1 performance reports. Some parents linked this delay to the overwhelming pressure on teachers caused by overcrowding.

Also read: Johannesburg Roads Agency pledges two-week fix for storm water crisis near Bovet Primary

“If a class has about 84 learners, the teacher cannot cope. It is too much,” another parent, Thina Mudau, said.

@caxtonjoburgnorth WATCH: Parents at Bovet Primary School rally outside the gates, voicing frustration over overcrowded classrooms and shortage of furniture. Video: Itumeleng Maloka #Alex #Bovet ♬ original sound – Caxton Joburg North

Gauteng MEC for Education Lebogang Maile previously confirmed that Bovet Primary is the only school in the area that accommodates learners who speak Xitsonga and Tshivenda. This means Bovet is the default choice for families in the surrounding community. As a result, individual classes routinely exceed capacity limits, according to parents. Ndlovu claimed that one class has as many as 91 learners.

Mudau said the school has grappled with these challenges for roughly five years, and there has been no solution. “We were not striking all along, but now we decided to protest because we saw that there is no solution.”

Department officials, who attended the meeting representing Maile’s office, assured parents that about 350 chairs would be delivered to the school between Wednesday and Friday. In addition, they pledged to supply mobile classrooms and chemical toilets as a short-term measure while permanent mobile toilets are procured.

Despite these undertakings, scepticism ran high among some parents. Mudau and others said they would only be satisfied once delivery trucks arrived at the school gates. Some warned that protests would resume if tangible improvements failed to materialise in the coming days.

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