Sizo Primary school desperate for new building
Sizo Primary School and its parents are desperate for a new building, due to the growing number of pupils enrolling every year.
The school is located at Maria Trost Farm, four kilometres outside Mashishing.
The parents have expressed their dissatisfaction to Steelburger/Lydenburg News after they saw the need for new, proper classrooms and toilets, and believe that the Department of Education (DoE) has been ignoring them for many years.
One of the parents, Freedah Mkhabela, told the newspaper that the school is giving quality education, but there is a shortage of classes, which makes it difficult for the pupils to learn and teachers to educate. “I have done my own research, since my children are attending the school, and what I have discovered is heartbreaking. The number of foundation phase pupils enrolled is high. More than 100 grade R pupils are attending class in the kitchen used by the feeding scheme.” She also alleged that the school has
98 grade one pupils sharing a class with two teachers, with another 69 grade twos and 67 grade threes, with limited classrooms. The school is in a dire state, with no proper flushing toilets and no maintenance being done.
The pupils are being taught in three old classrooms, built from stone, and one brick unit that consists of only two classrooms with broken windows and doors and a rondavel used as staff room for the teachers. The school has a sports field, but even this is being neglected.
“We have a growing number of pupils each year. We are pleading to the provincial education department to intervene, because the school is, despite its dilapidated state, still providing quality education,” Mkhabela explained.
The other concern is why the school was not one of the farm schools moved to the newly built boarding school in the Shaga area.
Mkhabela said that she is pleading with residents and parents to join hands in an effort to uplift the school through donations.
Transportation has also been a challenge, since some children who cannot afford to pay transport fares have to walk by the old Marambane river steel bridge, which is a risk for the pupils.
Steelburger/Lydenburg News posed questions to the department regarding the school. According to DoE spokesperson Gerald Sambo, Sizwe Primary School is operating on private land.
Sambo said there is a lease agreement between the owner and the DoE, so the department cannot do any maintenance nor build a new school on the privately-owned property.
“Moreover, the learner enrollment at the school is fairly high with about 400 learners. Most of these learners are not from the farm settlements and therefore the department could not relocate them to the newly built boarding school, as this school was meant for the learners coming from the farming community.
“The boarding school itself can only accommodate about 1 200 learners. We are going to convene a meeting with the property owners to establish ways in which we can improve the infrastructure and conditions at the school.”
