Agape parents fume about neglected private school in Hospital View
'This used to be a perfectly run and well looked after school, but it has now been changed into a pigsty'
Last week Wednesday, the management and directors of a Tembisa-based privately owned school, Agape Christian School, in Hospital View Section, were accused of neglecting the school and putting learners’ lives at risk.
Community members and parents of learners at this private school, who alerted this newspaper about the appalling conditions here, want the Department of Education to come and intervene.
“This used to be a perfectly run and well looked after school, but it has now been changed into a pigsty. Window glasses and doors aren’t fixed. Toilets are a total mess, no human being, especially children should go near them. “In short, the school is a disaster waiting to happen. Our children are actually in grave
danger,” said Philemon Mokoena, a concerned community member who alerted this paper about the conditions at this school.
“What is even more worrying is the fact that there are allegations that the current directors drink alcohol during school, on school premises and in front of the learners. We are also hearing that teachers are no longer getting paid. And you see, if the workers, especially teachers, are not getting paid, they will not be able to give it their level best and our children are going to suffer,” he continued.
We are going to formally write to the Departments of Education and Labour respectively to alert them of what is going on in this school,” he said.
On Sunday, parents and a number of community members had organised a meeting with the school’s directors but they didn’t pitch and the school’s gates were locked.
Members of the community told this paper that they were aware of many issues going on in school. “We are aware that teachers here are not paid and are sometimes harassed purely because they are from Zimbabwe. What is saddening is the fact that these teachers are harassed and threatened by the very directors of the school. They are threatened that the EFF will come and chase away all foreign nationals in the school,” said a community member during the meeting.
Parents of the learners had written a petition that one of the school’s directors be removed from the school because he doesn’t have an educational background and that he was a danger to the children.
“The person we want removed from the school has never been vetted before being brought here. For all we know, he may have a criminal record and a danger to our children. Remember, our children’s lives are at the care of the teachers and all the staff members working at the school,” he said.
Information suggested that the school was perfectly run when the founder, Rev Parker Mavi, was still alive.
“Things went sour after he passed on, leaving the school at the hands of his children. But we are told that one of Rev Mavi’s children, who runs his own businesses, has been trying to save the situation here. He is the one who would come and pay the teachers with his own money,” Mokoena said.
This newspaper has since liaised with the Department of Education about this matter and at the time of going to press, no formal response has been received.
