Glenvista High School: Education dept ‘will not fix damages’

Learners who allegedly refused to write an assessment at Glenvista High School resorted to torching parts of the school premises.

It is understood that the incident took place on Monday, 16 August according to the Department of Education in Gauteng.

Glenvista High School fire

It remains unclear why the learners did not want to write the assessment and investigations by the School Governing Body continues.

Gauteng MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi has since vowed that the department will not fix the damages caused by the fire after a brief visit to the school.

Lesufi took to Twitter on Tuesday and shared pictures of the learners writing the assessment outside. He said that he was furious at the incident.

“Yesterday they burnt the school hall because they didn’t want to write an exam. Today, they wrote the exams outside. So sad,” Lesufi said.

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Dept ‘will not fix damages’

“We are devastated to discover that learners could go as far as committing an act of arson, destroying school infrastructure in the process, just to escape an important assessment,” Lesufi added.

“As such, we will not fix the damages caused by this fire. The school must see to finish.”

The department said that the fire was caused before it could cause major damage.

“However, the curtains, projector screen, electrical wiring and PA system in the school hall were damaged by the fire.”

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Lesufi has since condemned the behaviour of a group of learners “in the strongest terms”.

“We wish to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the burning of the Glenvista High school hall allegedly by learners who did not want to write an assessment which was scheduled to be written in the hall that afternoon,” said Lesufi.

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