North West education dept budget under threat

The North West provincial portfolio committee on education has threatened to freeze the education department’s budget if it does not include the construction of two schools.

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Rustenburg – The North West provincial portfolio committee on education has threatened the department of education that it will not approve the department’s Annual Performance Plan (APP) if the construction of Maiketso Primary School and Ramotshodi Secondary School are not part of their financial plans.

This means that the department cannot spend its budget for the financial year if the legislature has not approved its annual performance plan.

The committee met with the department on Thursday night after it visited the two schools.

The committee had visited Maiketso Primary School in Morokweng, the only full-service school in the area offering inclusive education, accommodating learners with barriers in all grades.

As of 2016, the school had 870 leaners and 26 educators with an average class size of 50 learners, although there are classes which have up to 68 learners. There were 13 classrooms, but only three were conducive for teaching and learning, with the rest being dilapidated, the committee found.

The school was built by the community in 1980 and buildings were not in good condition.

Learners use pit toilets and ablution facilities for learners were not enough to cater for the numbers at the school.

The school further needs a full-time remedial/learning support educator to support learners, as not all educators were trained in specialised areas.

The school reportedly made requests dating as far back as November 2007 for intervention, bit to date nothing has been done.

Ramotshodi Secondary School, which was built by the community of Moalogane in the 1990s, has a learner enrolment of 229 and consisted of a severely dilapidated building with serious cracks oi the walls and damaged window frames, and no doors and ceilings.

Learners are taught in four worn out, unstable and damaged mobile classes with broken windows and no doors.

There were also two damaged classrooms used for both thr National Schools Nutrition Programme and as a teachers’ staff room.

The principal’s mobile office was blown away by strong winds in January.

Chairperson of the committee, Boitumelo Moiloa, said the department had to give a commitment as to what is going to happen with the learners at the two schools.

“It can’t be that we keep our own children in expensive schools whilst the children of the people who elected us are learning in an environment that is not conducive for teaching and learning. It is very unacceptable that almost half of the roof of the classrooms for learners was blown away by the wind, this poses a serious danger to both learners and teachers,” she said.

“Service delivery in the education department is not only a good Grade 12 pass rate, but what happens with lower grades and infrastructure. They need to also focus on the lower graders and infrastructure.

She said the committee was not there to police the department but to assist it.

“This is why we have taken a decision as a committee that we will not approve the APP of the department if the two schools [Maiketso Primary and Ramotshodi Secondary Schools] are not in their plans for building,” she said.

Education MEC Wendy Matsemela promised that the schools would be built in the current financial year 2016/17.

“The department has committed to do renovations which includes replacing roofing and fixing toilets, windows and doors as a temporary measure.

“We have also signed a memorandum of understanding with Impala Platinum mine to build a new school at Ramotshodi Secondary and renovate mobile classes,” said Matsemela.

The department has also promised to submit a comprehensive plan for addressing infrastructural challenges of schools in the province with time-frames of when that would be finished.

The department was expected to submit the plan by Friday [April 8].

The department would also submit a detailed report on the incidents which happened at the Potchefstroom Hoer-Volkskool, the North West School for the Deaf and Christiana School for the Blind. There have been incidents of fire which have claimed the lives of a number of pupils.

African News Agency

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