Parents lock gates to Dundee Junior Secondary School as protest continues over squalid school conditions
Parents say they will never allow their children to attend classes in prefabs
Parents last night locked the gates to Dundee Junior Secondary School on Oldcare Street as the protest against the poor conditions at the school stepped up.
Parents were angered after a pupil, Tsepo Mohau, was injured when a metal pole fell down and struck him on Tuesday. Some pupils returned to school after parents keep them out of school last week.
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A meeting was held on Sunday between Education officials and parents in a bid to come up with a solution. Parents say the school threatens the safety of children and staff as the toilet doors are broken, there a holes in the walls and in the roofs of the prefab buildings and parts of the corridors are collapsing.
Parents have rejected a suggestion that park homes be put up at the school and on a vacant plot opposite the school while the long process of building a new school gets underway.
Parents said the prefabs are an insult to their children and that this school has been suffering from years of neglect. There is also a snake infestation at the school.
They want the pupils to be accommodated in the former government school in Forestdale which has been turned into education offices. Following a meeting outside the school between education officials, staff and parents, S Kheswa, local education head, called is chief director on the phone in a bid to solve the impasse. However, the chief director confirmed that prefabs will be used temporarily while the new school is built on the premises.
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The education department said the gates should be opened and learning and teaching continued. However, parents vowed that this would never happen until their children are given proper classrooms.
It was said that the offices in Forestdale could not be used for classrooms. Parents were furious and threatened to burn the prefabs. Earlier, school children and parents danced outside the offices in Forestdale in a bid to keep officials from gaining access to the premises.
Police are on the scene as tempers threatened to flair.
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