Protesters say school ignored by department

HUNDREDS of angry parents and pupils yesterday blocked a main road through Bathurst to protest against the shocking state of a nearby township school.

Qhayiya Primary School has been under lockdown for a week, after the school governing body (SGB) decided to suspend classes to protest outside the gates until the education department addresses their grievances.

SGB chair Luyanda Draai said appeals to the education department to sort out rundown buildings, aged toilet infrastructure and staff appointment issues over the years had fallen on deaf ears.

“The building’s walls and floors have cracks in them and we are worried they will fall on the children.

“We are also short of teachers and the budget to the school has been cut.”

Over the past two days, the 876 Qhayiya pupils have been joined by sympathy protesters from nearby Velile High School.

“We have asked the district office to come and do something about the problems many times but they keep saying we must wait.”

Provincial education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said the school was on their “priority list” for the 2016-17 year.

He said Qhayiya featured in a broader provincial plan to sort out infrastructure backlogs and challenges at affected schools.

Claims by Mtima that toilet problems were caused by faulty sewer lines outside the school were dismissed by the SGB, which showed the Dispatch ablutions that could not be used because they overflowed.

Mtima also said key staff posts would be filled.

An April 28 SGB memorandum to district department officials warned they had earlier resolved to keep up “prolonged protest action” until their demands were met.

They urged officials to pay Grade R teachers and permanently fill vacant posts from the foundation phase to head of department, deputy principal and principal.

They also called for the school’s operating budget to be increased, which they claim was incorrectly calculated last year on lower pupil numbers, resulting in the school being officially downgraded from a level four to three facility.

Draai said there were 876 pupils at the school and not 625, as the department claimed and that no renovations had been done since it opened in 1988.

Mtima countered that schools were graded by the number of pupils enrolled over two years and that nearby Velile and Port Alfred High schools were also level three.

The Dispatch was also shown cracks in floors, walls and ceilings, and leaking roofs.

Staff working in the school kitchen, which provides a daily meal to all pupils, said they feared the floor of the second storey cook room would collapse, as it shook when they moved heavy pots.

Staff said most pupils came from impoverished homes and relied on the meals they provided.

Drinking water is harvested from asbestos roofs into gutters that are filled with debris and even have trees growing in them. — davidm@dispatch.co.za