‘Our school is a pigsty’
SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN STUCK IN ANOTHER SORRY EXCUSE FOR A SCHOOL IN LIMPOPO
PUPILS at a special needs school in Limpopo are living in disgusting conditions in the institution’s hostel.
Most of the classrooms at Benedict and Hope Centre in Laastehoop village, in GaMolepo outside Polokwane, do not have windows and many of the door handles are not working.
The school, for pupils as young as six – the eldest of whom is 23 – has been catering for pupils with mental and physical disabilities since its establishment in 2001. It offers vocational skills such as needlework, woodwork, artwork, hairdressing and computer studies to the pupils – the majority of whom have to be assisted during daily chores.
The school has three mini-halls – with broken beds and windows – which are used as hostels to accommodate the pupils.
The school has enrolled 93 pupils for the current academic year (34 girls and 59 boys). It offers infant, junior, intermediary and senior lessons to the pupils, with only 12 teachers, including the principal.
According to the matron in charge of the hostels, Lesiba Mojapelo, each pupil is charged R1 600 for accommodation per year. The school uses solar heating, which limits the amount of warm water for showers or baths. Mojapelo said there was no library at the school and that only one of the three washing machines was functioning.
The toilets were filthy with human excrement plastered all over the floors. Pupils’ clothes were scattered on the floor.
“The situation at this school needs urgent intervention because the health of the children is at serious risk,” said Mojapelo.
She said departmental officials had conducted inspections at the school but that none of them had come up with a solution.
“The toilets are always broken and need maintenance at all times. We end up using the money paid as hostel fees to fix some of the things, but it is not enough,” she added.
“We so wish education MEC Ishmael Kgetjepe can visit the school to see for himself the conditions under which the pupils live,” said the chairwoman of the school’s governing body, Phina Rakgoale.
“We are living in a pigsty. The situation is bad at this school,” said Jonas Shai, 19, from GaMamabolo village.
Department spokesman Naledzani Rasila said they would send officials responsible for special needs schools to inspect the school.
Tebogo Sephakgamela, provincial coordinator for Basic Education for All (Befa), yesterday called on the provincial department of education to improve conditions at the school.
“Regardless of the disabilities of the pupils at that school, they must be afforded conditions similar to those at ordinary schools,” said Sephakgamela.
He said they would visit the school this week.
Phillip Mahladisa, deputy chairman for Disabled People of South Africa, also said they would visit the school and ask the MEC for education, Ishmael Kgetjepe, to intervene.