Daily Dispatch

No desks is unacceptable

OVER the weekend the Eastern Cape department of education finally delivered furniture to the Lower Malepelepe Primary School in Tsolo.

This was after a photograph of Grade 1 pupils kneeling on the dirty floor inside their classroom circulated on social media.

This newspaper also followed up on the matter and visited the school last week.

It turned out that there had not been enough desks at the school for the past five years.

Basically, if it had not been for the embarrassment the department suffered after the photograph and the story about the situation at Lower Malepelepe surfaced, those 60 children would still be on that hard concrete floor.

That it took the department five years to deliver this basic requirement for education in a classroom is unforgivable.

Is this is the same department that we are expecting to see improve our dismal matric results?

What kind of matriculants would the children of Malepelepe have been in 12 years time had they had to continue learning under such challenging circumstances?

Early childhood development is crucial in the development of children. It is also a cornerstone of the schooling system.

According to the Malepelepe’s principal, Noziphiwo Twetwa, the school has a high rate of absenteeism, but with the new desks she is hoping the children will return to class.

Their absence is hardly surprising. Which child would want to sit on a hard floor for their entire school day? What parent would want their child to spend six hours on a hard, dirty floor day after day?

It is well and good that the children finally have furniture, but this is hardly a moment to celebrate.

Last week, the Education MEC Mandla Makupula revealed that there are more than 2 000 schools in the province with only two or three teachers.

Even worse, another 219 schools have only a single teacher.

What chance do the children in these schools have of being properly educated?

In today’s edition, we also report on the education portfolio committee in Bhisho accusing department officials of producing false reports regarding our schools’ state of readiness for 2017.

Despite claims by the department that the distribution of textbooks and stationery to schools has been going smoothly, this was not the case. The committee found schools in Mthatha and Ngcobo where pupils had no basic exercise books to write on.

If the department cannot meet such basic obligations, how on earth will they ever manage to turn around our floundering, sub-standard public schooling system?

Sadly, schools like Lower Malepelepe are not unique in this province. It is unacceptable that there has to be an uproar before the department gets its house in order.

The Dispatch will continue to expose these situations and tell the real story of the state of education in the Eastern Cape.