A second mobile classroom at the two-year-old Rekgonne Secondary School in Blydeville near Lichtenburg has been set on fire.
According to Elias Malindi, spokesperson for the Northwest department of Education, this incident occurred on 6 August, the first classroom was set on fire in July earlier this year.
“Materials that were lost in the fire include stationery, textbooks, teacher’s files, preparation books, school stamp, 2020 school applications, learners’ tasks, sports attire, and cleaning materials,” said Malindi.
Mmapahefo Matsemela, MEC for education in the province, was shocked and dismayed by the burning of the classroom. Matsemela appealed to the community members to expose the culprits.
“I am extremely disappointed by the barbaric incident of burning mobile classrooms. This act of burning and destroying school property is literally taking our province behind in terms of addressing infrastructure challenges at our schools. This was a temporary measure since there are plans to build a new school in that area and I wish to appeal to all community members to come forward and report culprits who burn schools to the police”, said Matsemela.
Rekgonne Secondary started operating in January 2017 with 141 Grade 8 learners. It started with four mobile classrooms and one was used as a staff room and storeroom. Extra mobile classrooms were delivered when Grade 9 was added in 2018.
Teaching and learning have been affected by the incident and the School Governing Body has called for an urgent meeting with parents on Friday, 09 August 2019.
