Parents of learners at Gaenthone Secondary School in Tigane are appealing to the North West Department of Education to start using the mobile classrooms purchased to alleviate overcrowding at the school.
Grade 8 learners in Tigane have been going to school on a rotational basis since the beginning of this academic year because of a shortage of classrooms.
The North West Department of Education mandated that the 540 learners not show up at once to avoid overcrowding and said it had invested in mobile classrooms as a temporary means of relieving the situation.
The classrooms were delivered with new furniture but all that is gathering dust.
However, the North West Education Department spokesperson Elias Malindi said the mobile classroom still needs finishing touches before they can be used.
“What we are working on is the connection of water and the ablution facilities. Once those things are addressed, we will then be able to relocate the learners from Gaenthone to those mobile classrooms. We want to address this matter as fast as we can,” he said.
One parent, Anna Mamoletsane, said: “Children are struggling. We were pleased to see that the department had purchased additional classrooms, but it is the end of April, we can see that our children are still not using those classrooms,” she said.
George Komedi said there is confusion as those mobile classrooms were installed at another local primary school about a meter away from Gaenthone Secondary School.
“Seeing those classrooms used frustrates us even more. We have no idea why the department opted to take the mobile classrooms elsewhere, but we were happy that even if our children will be walking extra meters to school, at least they will get proper education,” he said.
A learner said she wished to attend classes daily like her peers from other schools and she feels she is losing out on her studies.
Malindi admitted that at the beginning of the academic year, the Grade 8’s spent most of their first term without a Mathematics teacher but said the matter was reported to the department and the department dispatched two teachers who are currently teaching the subject.
“I think all the issues about Mathematics teachers are matters that have long been addressed, so to bring it now we see it as misleading information that is not true teachers are there, teaching Mathematics,” he said.
