Pupils, parents join in protest
PUPILS of a horror school joined their parents to protest outside the Limpopo Department of Education yesterday.
They were angered over the delays in the building of a new school after the original one was shut down.
The parents and pupils of Mpepule Primary School accused the department of turning its back on them.
In March the department shut down the school, 90km from Lephalale, after Sowetan exposed the horrific and unsuitable conditions under which teaching took place.
Pupils and teachers used three classrooms for sleeping at night and for learning during the day.
The school, situated in the bushes on a farm, had no ablution facilities, forcing pupils to relieve themselves in the bushes.
Girls as young as seven took on parental responsibilities, bathing their younger siblings before attending lessons.
Two pupils were bitten by a snake while sleeping inside a classroom.
Yesterday, 14 parents who arrived in two minibuses with 30 pupils said they were promised a school would be ready “within three months” after meeting education officials on March 30.
Since then they had not heard a word from the department and some children were languishing at home because they were allegedly bullied at the school they were sent to after Mpepule’s closure.
“What pains us is that the department has made promises which it has failed to fulfil. And no one bothers to communicate with us,” parent Maria Thole, from Motsweding village, said.
Her two children were part of a group squeezed in at Bangalong Primary School in Shongoane village as an interim measure.
The pupils, some holding placards written “enough is enough”, spent most of the day outside the department offices.
Mapula Molekwa, a parent who served as chairwoman of the school governing body, claimed pupils were being teased by teachers and fellow pupils at Bangalong.
They were being called names such as an insulting word referring to a farm dweller.
“Our children are not comfortable at Bangalong. Most of them have since resolved to stay home instead of going to that school.”
Parent Midah Moruwane, whose three children were also sent to Bangalong, said her children told her they wanted to go back to Mpepule. “Our children are losing out on their foundation lessons because of the delays by the department to find them a school.”
Provincial government spokesman Phuti Seloba, who met the parents yesterday, said a meeting would be held on Sunday in Lephalale to map a way forward.
“But we cannot tolerate actions where parents interfere with the education of the children. We must engage in fruitful discussions while children are in classes,” he said.
“Our kids are losing lessons