The Department of Education (DoE) says it has instructed the Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport, to execute an intervention plan at Klipspringer Primary School during the June holidays.

Its plan is to replace the slab roof with a normal one.

The department also plans to remove mobile classrooms and replace them with brick and mortar (1×2 block of classrooms and 1×3 classroom), two grade R centres and ablution facilities (eight girls, eight boys and two disabled).

However, these classrooms are also included in DoE’s long-term plan for the school – which also includes building a double-storey building to provide eight classrooms.

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The SGB says it is unclear exactly what the DoE plans to do, and when.

The intervention comes after the school’s SGB was planning to shut down the school following a civil/structure engineer issuing a structural inspection report that states the slabs in some of the classrooms have become deformed beyond their safety limits.

The classes are overcrowded; they have about 781 learners but a 180-pupil capacity.

Klipspringer’s SGB said it is unhappy with the response, since the school still needs to take in new learners for 2020.

According to Catherine Mokoena, SGB chairman, they were hoping to have the overcrowding problem solved for good.

“We received a letter responding to the issues we raised and when we went through the plans we were disappointed. The answers are vague. For example when the acting HOD came to represent the department his speech made us believe that a school will be constructed during the 2019/20 plan, now it is the long-term plan.

We are not going to relax until they start doing something that will make a difference for good. This is our children’s future we are worried about,” she said.

Mokoena said they had an SGB meeting on Wednesday and they will approach the department for clarity.
DoE spokesman, Jasper Zwane, declined to clarify the matter to the newspaper.