Tsolo school’s five-year battle for desks, chairs
Grade 1s have to sit on floor when writing
MORE than 50 Grade 1 pupils at a rural Eastern Cape school, some as young as six years, have to sit on the floor all day because the school does not have desks and chairs for them.
This despite provincial education bosses knowing about the plight of pupils at Lower Malepelepe Primary School in Mdikisweni village outside Tsolo for the past five years.
Even pupils in other classes who are lucky enough to have desks and chairs, some desks are shared by three pupils as seen first-hand by a Saturday Dispatch team, who visited the school at Lower Malepelepe Primary after a photograph showing the plight of the pupils was posted on social networks.
The photograph showed a group of children kneeling on the floor while writing inside a classroom.
Teachers and angry parents at the school accused education authorities of gambling with the futures of their children.
They claimed no furniture had been delivered to the school since 2012, forcing staff to beg for spare desks and chairs from neighbouring schools.
However, provincial education department spokesman, Malibongwe Mtima, dismissed this yesterday saying the department had a system of “topping up” furniture in schools.
Lower Malepelepe principal Noziphiwo Twetwa, confirmed that several applications for new school furniture had been made as far back as 2012, to no avail.
“Their [Grade 1s] performance has gone down.”
She said that as a result some parents had decided to take their children to another well-resourced school in neighbouring Ntibane village. “Our children are battling to write while kneeling down on the floor. It also places pressure on teachers because they spend a lot of time trying to make out what the children have written,” she added.
Twetwa revealed that the few desks and chairs being used in other grades had been donated by neighbouring schools after she appealed to them for help.
Meanwhile, school governing body chairman David Nomakete blamed the department for folding their arms while their children were suffering.
“Maybe if it was an urban school, the problem would have already been addressed by now.”
The school reportedly had more than 400 pupils on its books just three years ago but the numbers dropped to 308 this year.
Mtima told the Dispatch yesterday that the school would be getting 50 new double desks that could accommodate 100 pupils by yesterday.
South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) branch secretary in Tsolo, Thabile Bhekiswa, attributed the problems experienced by schools like Lower Malepelepe to the decision by education bosses to centralise procurement. — sikhon@dispatch.co.za