Slow start to Amandasig secondary school year

The Gauteng education department is aware of the water shortage that affected Amandasig secondary school recently.

The shortage was due to the challenges faced by Tshwane regarding reservoir supplies that interrupted normal school proceedings for two separate days.

This resulted in the school sending the learners home early on both occasions which raised concern for community members as they believe the school is close to a crime hotspot.

“Releasing learners without prior arrangement is not safe,” said parents.

A Grade 10 learner said that the school had faced many challenges since it opened in January.

In the first few days the school was not prepared for the learners so had a shortage of textbooks. Learners also did not receive their individual timetables even though they had filled in their subject choice form last year.

The learner said that for most of January, their classmates sat outside because they did not have a class. When they finally did find one, they were kicked out because it was booked by another class for that time.

“Most of the time I would just play on my phone because there was nothing to do. It seems like the school doesn’t care about the learners.”

The learner said a head count had to be done to see how many learners were doing which stream.

“When we finally got timetables, we didn’t have a maths teacher. On February 7 we were running up and down the school looking for an empty class during our maths period. Eventually we were told to sit under a tree as we could not find a class.”

Gauteng education spokesperson Steve Mabona said textbooks were issued to all learners on January 11 and the school was using a temporary composite timetable which teachers were sharing daily during register class with all learners.

“Accordingly, all learners received their personal timetables in February,” said Mabona.

He also confirmed that the Grade 10 class did not have a designated maths teacher, however, two educators were assisting in teaching the class.

“This matter is now water under the bridge as the school has since appointed a new teacher with effect from February 13,” he said.

Mabona said that the school recently received extra mobile classes.

“As such we currently do not have a shortage thereof,” he said.

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