Future looks bleak for school with four teachers
The parents and the school governing body (SGB) previously pleaded with the Limpopo Department of Education to employ more teachers at the school with no success. They even protested at the school and locked the gates, but with no luck.
BOTHASHOEK – Learners at Mahlagaume Primary School are not enjoying their right to education, because their school has only four teachers tutoring more than 500 pupils.
The parents and the school governing body (SGB) previously pleaded with the Limpopo Department of Education to employ more teachers at the school with no success. They even protested at the school and locked the gates, but with no luck.
“We have only four teachers for 538 learners, and this is not to our children’s benefit. They deserve to be educated,” said an angry parent. They are even thinking of donating a sum of R40 per family household to hire their own teacher. They said the money could be used to pay for the teachers as the department continued to let them down.
Steelburger/Lydenburg News spoke to a grade seven learner, Miranda Sebolela, about the situation at school. “Its difficult for us to learn. Since the beginning of the year we never had a single class of arts and culture, our books are still blank. We cannot blame the teachers as they have to deal with other classes as well. We just want to see our school with enough teachers,” she said.
The school’s SGB said they had been encountering the shortage of teachers since 2012.
“We wrote to the department in 2012 but nobody bothered to help, we even travelled to the department’s offices in Polokwane in 2014, but still we were sent from pillar to post,” said the secretary of the SGB, Ms Sinky Maile.
Maile added that one of the officials at the department even accused the teachers and SGB of admitting too many learners.
A teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, admitted that they found it difficult to teach the learners. “The truth of the matter is that the lack of teachers reduces the quality of time that a teacher can spend with a child. This has a negative impact on the quality of teaching and the children’s ability to learn.”
Spokesman for education, Mr Paena Galane told the newspaper that Mahlagaume deserved more teachers than the five they had.
“We will look into the matter, it’s just an unfortunate situation and we will ensure that it is solved,” he said.
The parents said they wouldn’t stop locking the gates and protesting until the acting MEC Mr Jerry Ndou addressed them.
