SCHOOL IN THE BALANCE

A disturbing e-mail about the possible closure of Umzimvelo Agricultural Schoolreached the Highvelder last week.

Situated 28 km from Ermelo on the road to Amsterdam, the school was built in the early 1980s to provide education for children of farm workers in the area.

A dream to educate the children has become a nightmare, according to Mr Japie Celliers, owner of the farm on which the school is built.

The school, intended for 200 learners, now houses nearly a thousand children ranging from pre-school to Grade 12.

Issues of concern include poor sanitation, dangerous electrical connections, over-crowded classrooms, rats and mice in food parcels and the children’s safety when disembarking from buses.

Mr Sibonelo Nhlabathi, chairman of the school governing body, and other school officials present denied the allegations of dangerous electrical connections and rodents in food, as food stocks are kept in sealed containers.

According to them, the Mpumalanga Department of Education (MDE) is aware of the influx of learners and six extra classrooms, all mobile, were added in the past two years. They said there are no more than 50 learners in a class and that they might need only one or two classrooms more.

Mr Cilliers said he informed school officials on numerous occasions that there is ample space on the field next to the school to serve as a parking area for the buses. The officials confirmed that the parking area is in their planning.

The worst aspect of the school is the sanitation facilities or rather the lack thereof.

The junior learners (boys and girls) share five pit toilets – a slab of cement with a hole the size of a brick over which the user has to squat – without a door, basin or toilet paper in sight.

Faeces are scraped off the floor by cleaners and, at the time of the newspaper’s visit, had been thrown outside on the grass with stains left all over the cement floor. Needless to say, the stench was unbearable.

According to a document published by the Department of Basic Education on public school infrastructure, “plain pit and bucket toilets are not allowed in schools and shall render a school non-functional”.

The older learners use toilets on the other side of the school grounds. According to school officials, the sewerage system does not allow for water to be used, hence eco-friendly air-drying toilets are provided.

Again there is no basin for washing hands, or toilet paper, the few doors that are present are broken, there is no provision for girls’ sanitary needs and all the windows without burglar bars are broken. The toilets are all soiled, with flies buzzing around them.

The building that holds six toilets each for the boys and girls has only part of its roof. According to officials, it was blown off “just before the beginning of the new school year”.

Mr Nhlabathi said they reported the toilet situation and roof to the MDE on numerous occasions and received only empty promises. According to Mr Celliers, his correspondence with the MDE also yielded no results.

He said his dream remains education for all the farm children in the area, but he wants to close the school until the MDE has rectified all the problems. Mr Celliers also wishes the school to return to a full agricultural curriculum.

When asked what will happen should the school close down, one of the officials said he would teach outside the building. He added that the school has had a 100 per cent matriculation pass rate the past two years, because they teach the children that their future is important and they should not compromise it because of their learning circumstances.

Mr Celliers does not agree with this philosophy and says no human being should be subjected to these unsanitary and crowded conditions.

An attempt to call a meeting with the parents to explain why he wants to close the school failed, when school officials failed to give the notice of the meeting to the learners.

However, word spread and a few parents and members of the governing body attended the meeting at the school on Sunday morning. Angry parents agreed to the closure, but consensus was reached that the governing body would have a week to contact the MDE and come up with a solution.

Depending on the report, the closure of the school could be imminent and will be decided at a meeting with all the parents this Sunday.

In his reply to the Highvelder’s queries, the MDE spokesman, Mr Jasper Zwane, immediately replied that the department would send a team of officials from the infrastructure unit to take stock of the situation at the school and make recommendations to the Head of Department. On the basis of these recommendations, the department will act swiftly to remedy whatever challenge exists.

“The department is committed to ensuring that the conditions for teaching and learning are at all times favourable,” Mr Zwane said.