Rainy weather means no school at Matimba High

UNLIKE other schools, whether there will be classes at Matimba High School at Nkavele village outside Malamulele all depends on weather conditions.

Matimba High School was built in 1995 by the community and has 688 learners and 14 classrooms.

Some of these classes have been converted into staff rooms to accommodate the 22 teachers at the school.

Despite the community’s initial effort to build the school with no government support, the school has become hazardous with dilapidated classrooms, which pose a threat to learners in the event of bad weather.

“Rainy weather conditions always mean that there are no classes and learners have to be sent home,” Risimati Nghonyama, the chairperson of the school governing body (SGB) explained.

“We have been asking government to build us a new school since 2011 because this one is old and dilapidated, but nothing has happened,” Nghonyama said.

He added that the ceiling had previously collapsed, and that a learner had been injured in the incident.

“The school has never been renovated since it was built, there are holes in the classroom floors, broken desks with some of the classes being roofless,” one of the teachers who asked to remain anonymous, said.

The learners said they found it difficult to study inside the dilapidated classes.

“When it’s hot, it’s very difficult to study in the classrooms because the sun shines right onto our books, and hurts our eyes when we try to read or write something,” Tinyiko Baloyi, one of the learners, said.

“Some of us have resorted to bringing umbrellas to class so we can shield ourselves against the sun,” she added.

Asked whether the department of education was aware of the conditions at the school, department spokesperson, Paena Galane said the department was not aware of the situation at the school and thus the school did not feature on the list of schools that had been earmarked for renovations.

“We currently have a list of more than 800 schools that have been earmarked for renovation, and I have checked that school and it’s not there,” Galane said.

He asked to be provided with more information about the school so he could investigate.

“I need to know whether there were any previous efforts that the SGB or the principal made to notify the department of the condition of the school,” he said.