POLOKWANE – Westenburg Secondary School learners’ anger and frustration over not having a mathematics teacher boiled over in a protest in front of the department of education last Friday.
The gr. 9 and 10 learners gathered outside the department at about 07:30, where they demanded to have a mathematics teacher appointed.
Hellen Peasall, circuit manager at the department, reportedly tried to calm the learners and asked them to go back to school. She apparently promised that she would be at the school to respond to their questions within an hour.
The learners went back to school, but refused to go into class. Instead, they protested outside the school yard.
According to the learners, they had had enough and they would not settle for promises by the department. They said if they did not get a teacher soon, they would fail and they refused to lose a year.
“We are not going back to class until the department tells us what they are going to do. We haven’t had a maths teacher since the beginning of the year. We have had enough of our maths period turning into a free period and our books being empty. We have not written any tests, nor did we get any assignments to hand in, but when we got our reports last term, we failed. We want to know where the school got the failing marks from,” one of the learners said.
Another frustrated learner said the June examinations were starting soon and on June 2 they had to write mathematics.
“How can we write an exam if we never had a teacher to teach us the subject? It is not fair because we will fail,” the learner said.
Review was still at the school when Peasall arrived and addressed the learners.
She asked the learners to go back to class, but the learners refused and said they would only go back to class after the department gave them answers. Peasall agreed to meet with the learners and personnel in private to discuss a way forward.
Pitsi Maloba, education spokesperson, confirmed that there was no maths teacher at the school and that the department would advertise the post soon.
“The teacher who occupied the position took a transfer in March. We are at an advanced stage of advertising the post,” Maloba said. According to Maloba, the learners did have lessons even though they did not have a teacher. “The other teachers at the school helped by giving the learners work. They will be writing the exams,” Maloba said.
