Update: Maintenance support is given to Bedfordview High School
In response to the school grounds not being maintained, Mabona said the maintenance of the school started once the school reopened.
After Bedfordview High School was subject to scrutiny after a social media post about the status of the school premises, the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) said the school has always been a priority.
This was after the school was used as an Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) voting registration venue on January 26 and 27.
Steve Mabona, spokesperson for the GDE, said the school was approached by the IEC and agreed to use the staffroom for registration.
“The IEC chooses the venues for registration or voting,” said Mabona.
Also read: Maintenance at Bedfordview High School continues
Mabona said that the school does have enough brick and mortar classrooms to accommodate all learners currently at Bedfordview High, despite the prefab classrooms not being utilised.
“The school has been advised by the inspectors during the renovations that took place from 2015 to 2018 not to use these classrooms for health reasons, and that has been communicated to the department,” said Mabona.
Mabona added that these classrooms have not been used by learners for over 15 years, but was used during the construction period in 2015 to 2018 to store unused chairs from the storeroom in the hall to allow for further renovations.
He said that the school was given permission to remove the chairs from the prefab classrooms.
“It was agreed in a meeting with the contractor that the classrooms were to be removed and replaced by those in brick and mortar as it was done with the school’s workshop,” said Mabona.
In response to the school grounds not being maintained, Mabona said R66 053 has been allocated to Bedfordview High for maintenance for the academic year of 2018/2019.
Also read: MEC visits Bedfordview High School
He said the maintenance of the school has only started once the school reopened in 2019 and that during that process the machines were broken and sent for repairs.
“Since it has been raining, the grass grew. However, gardening and cutting of grass is currently in progress,” said Mabona.
Mabona said that there are four groundsmen employed at Bedfordview High, whereby the surroundings are swept and raked on a daily basis and the grass cut bi-weekly.
