POLOKWANE – Learners from Westenburg Secondary School are expected to attend winter school during the June holidays to catch up on six months’ work, which was lost due to the fact that they do not have a mathematics or physical science teacher.
The classes will be held at the school for gr. 9 and 10 mathematics and gr. 11 and 12 physical science.
This comes after the learners expressed their anger and frustration over not having a mathematics teacher by staging a protest last month.
In May, the gr. 9 and 10 learners protested outside the department of education, where they demanded a mathematics teacher be 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. They instead protested outside the school yard.
The learners said 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.
Pitsi Maloba, education spokesperson, confirmed there was no mathematics or physical science teacher at the time, and said the department would advertise the posts soon.
To date, no teachers have been appointed.
A source close to the situation revealed to Review that the department met with learners and personnel, and a decision was reached that the learners would have to attend classes during the June holidays to catch up on lost work.
“The children will have to catch up on six months work in three weeks and the last week of the holiday they will write an exam. I think it is unfair towards the children, because it is a lot of work. I would not be surprised if a majority of them fail the exam because it’s too much work to learn and understand in such a short period of time,” the source said.
The school principal, Petrus Monyama, was not available for comment as he was reportedly on sick leave.
The acting school principal Bettie Boom, referred Review to the department for comment. “We are not allowed to speak to the media as the department has an official spokesperson to respond to any media related queries,” she said.
By the time of going to print, the department had not commented on the matter.
