Only two taps for over 250 learners at Hammanskraal primary school
While a borehole was created, the water was however not of A-grade quality, according to ActionSA.
A Hammanskraal school has only two taps for over 250 learners, ActionSA said.
This discovery follows a visit to the Selang primary school in Kudube on Monday.
And while a borehole was created, the water was however not of A-grade quality, according to the party’s Gauteng chairperson, Bongani Baloyi.
“The school is hazardous, the water is contaminated and the environment is not fit for learners,” the party said.
ActionSA says they plan to write to Gauteng education MEC Matome Chiloane and the Tshwane utilities MMC Daryl Johnston to urgently address delays in fixing the dilapidated infrastructure at the school.
The school is said to be the victim of neglect with the learning institution’s boundary walls being low-grade, a “white elephant” computer room and other equipment outdated, broken, or vandalised.
The school is alleged to have suffered neglect for eight years as a result of the Gauteng Education Department (GDE) failing to maintain the infrastructure at the institution.
A significant contributor to the decline of Selang Primary, which faced closure in 2017, is the failure of the Gauteng Electronic Admissions System.
The system was introduced by then-Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi in 2016 to provide an equal registration process.
Baloyi claimed that the system had been sending Grade 1 learners to the nearby school. As enrolments declined over the years, infrastructure had been neglected.
“Due to the subsequent decline in new enrolments at Selang Primary, it has not received adequate infrastructure repairs by the department,” he said.
He said staff members told them of their frustrations with the GDE installing mobile classrooms at a nearby school to accommodate additional learners – while their school had space to accommodate such learners.
Baloyi claimed that their school was overlooked and others were prioritised with infrastructure, leading to a decline in enrolments over the years.
“This was allegedly partly due to how principal salaries are structured where the more pupils a principal has, the higher their salaries are,” he said.
According to Baloyi, the admissions policy seemed to be incentivising principals to accept additional learners despite space constraints.
“It is unacceptable that a school capable of providing education to learners who desperately need it, stands under-utilised and in a state of disrepair while nearby schools are erecting temporary facilities to deal with overcrowding,” he said.
He said the budget used for temporary facilities would be better spent on ensuring that Selang was maintained and able to provide quality education to its learners.
The Gauteng Department of Education could not be reached for comment.
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