Still empty: Education Department defends decision
More than a year after mobile classes were delivered to Piet Hugo Primary School shortly before the lockdown, the six mobile classes estimated to accommodate roughly 120 extra learners have still not been used.
Last week, the parents of around 150 learners who had not been placed in a school for the 2021 academic year protested outside the Provincial Department of Education’s Offices in Biccard Street to show their dismay.
They argued that despite applying for admission in time, their children have still not been placed, missing the first month of school despite empty mobile classes at Piet Hugo.
Some of the parents say they applied to the school and were told there is no space even with the unused mobile classrooms remaining unused.
Departmental Spokesperson Tidimalo Chuene says the mobile classrooms were delivered to the school to cater for the high demand in admission space, from applications received in Polokwane.
She says the school was selected based on the capacity of the premises to accommodate mobile classrooms, but that the parents of learners to be placed at the school last year did not take up the offer to have their children placed at the school.
According to Chuene, arrangements were made for additional teachers to accommodate the increase in learners and these arrangements are still in place for additional teachers to cater for learners who will be in the mobile classrooms.
She says in the coming days the classes at the school might be used as the demand for admission space is currently still high in Polokwane.
