Parents at Selang Primary School in Hammanskraal are unhappy about what they describe as the poor condition of the school. Picture: Oupa Mokoena African News Agency (ANA)
Pretoria - As school reopened on Monday, some parents feared their children could be injured while learning at Selang Primary School in Hammanskraal.
A parent and former school governing body member said there was a lot of neglect and failure to fix even the most basic of things at Selang.
The parent, who asking not to be named for fear of victimisation, said: “Different school governing body structures even before my tenure have tried to fight for mere maintenance; some parts of the class roofs and ceilings have caved in and there is a general issue of infrastructure.
“We have never been listened to. Yes, meetings have been held, a lot of times too. However, nothing would come of it.”
She said parents, who could afford to, had taken their children to other schools which were further away. They needed daily transpor which the majority could not afford.
The parents said those like her kept their children at the school hoping things would get better.
Another former governing body member said the school had faced many challenges, including nearly two years ago when government almost closed down Selang, saying there was no budget for it.
"This was met with a backlash as parents thought of having to take their children to Leboneng, which is far for most of us.
“So, now we don’t know if we are being neglected because we fought the matter. When it rains our children suffer.
“Some parents have not been speaking up so that we have a collective voice, and it seems like we are few who wanted to improve the state of the school.”
A parent, who also did not want to be named, said the school had great teachers, but the infrastructure was a problem.
“Two of my children went there, and now I have one. I can tell you it is getting worse; we cannot move her because we cannot afford to take her to another school.
“We have also complained about the unkempt grounds which could be harbouring snakes. We also pay high prices for the uniform that they chose and we have rejected it, but there is simply no ear given to us.
“What happens when one of the roofs that keep caving-in falls on our children, especially now that it has been raining very hard?
“What saddens us mostly is that the teachers are so good, I have no issue with the quality of education, which is why I have brought all my children here, but they are not being met halfway. The state of some of the classrooms is bad, and we do not know why there is no effort to fix and allocate funds so the school is run properly.”
Meanwhile, the governing body said there was a need for renovations in some parts of the school, but denied the ceilings were caving-in.
Gauteng Department of Education spokesperson Steve Mabona said according to the information they had, there was nothing wrong at the school, and it was even recently painted.
Pretoria News
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