UPDATE: Etete residents not backing down after closing overcrowded school

The 1400 pupils at the overcrowded Tinley Manor Primary School in Etete’s Velani Township have lost nine days of study (and counting) as the school has been closed since February 8.

The school was closed by parents who have lost patience with the lack of progress in the school’s promised extension project.

They say the school will remain closed until the education department gives them a date for the start of construction.

Apparently, a building plan was shown to the school heads and governing body and construction was promised to start last year September. That did not happen, with no explanation.

Also read: Angry residents close down overcrowded Etete school

Education department spokesperson Kwazi Mthethwa said the Tinley Manor Primary project was not the only one that was behind schedule.

“Several years ago we had a lot of schools destroyed by a storm, so money that was allocated to most of the projects had to be taken and used for that emergency. We urge the residents to please work with us and not to disturb learning,” said Mthethwa.

The Courier has learnt that there was a meeting with the education department last week and another is scheduled to take place on Wednesday. In that meeting, the department is expected to give the date for the commencement of the construction.

“Should they tell us, the “September story” we will reject it because the department had been saying that for the past years and nothing has been done,” said Velani Township ANCYL secretary Sphamandla Khumbuza.

Khumbuza said they have been writing letters to the department since 2004 and nothing had been done.

“We are left with no option but to close the school. You cannot have 120 pupils in one classroom. How do you expect the children to learn in that situation?” asked Khumbuza.

When the Courier reported on the problem in March last year, teachers said they were unable to give individual attention to children because of the massive overcrowding of classrooms.

Back in 2014 parents and pupils used mobile toilets to block the road to the school in protest over the condition of pre-fab classrooms supplied by the education department.

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