Local school is in desperate need of furniture

The start of the academic year has been chaotic as learners at Maphutha Secondary High School were sent home by the school on January 16 due to overcrowding and a shortage of furnishings.

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Majasana Maringa, a member of the school governing body (SGB) said a decision was made to shut the school gates because the school was overburdened by the large number of learners who were assigned by the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) to attend school there.

He added that this situation has persisted for more than two years.

“There are a lot of learners coming for lessons, making it difficult for us to accommodate everyone.

“When nothing was being done despite our repeated requests to contact the district and Matome Chiloane, the MEC for Education in Gauteng, we believed that the best method for the department to hear our complaints was to shut down the school gates, preventing learners from attending classes as the school year began.

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“The first week of school is often quiet as learners are still getting used to the routine, signing up and gathering their textbooks, which was to our advantage.

“The MEC’s office phoned us late on the day of the shutdown and promised to send someone to examine the problem,” he said.

“It wasn’t until we shut the school that they began to take us seriously. The inspector then got in touch with us and said they would bring furniture.

“They supplied us with more than 200 seats and tables, but we need more because the school accommodates 1 800 learners.

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“We have almost 400 learners with us just for Grade Eight and we’re not sure how we can fit them all in.

How are the learners meant to write down their work and where will they sit? Which child should be seated on a chair and which should be on the floor?

“When we called the department about the lack of furniture they had supplied, Chiloane promised to send someone to analyse our needs. He said that after the assessment is complete, they will add more furnishings to what they had given us.”

Maringa hopes the assessment will be completed as soon as possible.

“What scares us most is that if they don’t deliver, we’ll be overwhelmed because the department informed us that there will be an additional 200 learners at the school, over and above the number we already have.

“This is insane. The school will have more than 2 000 learners. The department, not the principal, must be held accountable.

“The department must make sure that children receive a quality education with adequate facilities because the principal can only do so much.”

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Responding to an enquiry by The Thembisan, GDE spokesperson Steve Mabona said the department was aware of the shortage of furniture at Maphutha Secondary School as a furniture audit is done every year.

“In November 2022 it was requested that all schools in the district indicate the amount of furniture needed for the 2023 academic year.

“The principal of the said school requested the quantity of the furniture needed by the school from the department.

“The department provided 500 pieces of furniture to the school on January 16.

“An additional 500 pieces of furniture are still needed to close the gap of those learners who have no furniture.

“It must be noted that the school needs to account for the furniture they bought through the allocated resource budget.

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The SGB needs to provide a report of the chairs they bought in 2022 and give the district their furniture audit after purchasing chairs for the learners.

“Nothing justifies the disruption of schooling more so during a time when every day counts as we have already lost several critical school days due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

“We urge all stakeholders to use available structures to raise issues of concern and not to disrupt schooling. Lost contact time is not easily recovered,” said Mabona.

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