High school of horror
‘BULLYING, GANGSTERISM, DRUG ABUSE ARE SERIOUS ISSUES’ With the holidays, the neglected school’s problems are only emphasised.
Welcome to the high school of horror – aka Hoërskool Die Burger – where the garden is overgrown, the grass is as tall as the school’s palisade fence, with shattered windows and piles of trash making for a rubbish dump rather than a place of education.
With schools on a break, the neglected school’s problems are only emphasised.
In the southwest of Johannesburg, the walls of the school in the suburb of White Ridge were vandalised and sections of the school building were closed off, with palisade fencing and steel bars welded shut, including various classrooms.
The playgrounds were littered with anything from sweet papers to plastic baggies in which drugs are sold, and as well as empty beer and spirits bottles.
There was a sharp contrast between the green, neatly cut rugby field apparently rented by a local rugby club, and the netball fields where weeds were growing through the cement cracks.
The Democratic Alliance’s Gauteng shadow education MEC Khume Ramulifho said they were calling on Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi to intervene.
“The school must focus on learning and teaching in a conducive environment. It must be cleaned, appoint a permanent principal and evict people residing at the premises to ensure controlled access to the school,” he said.
School governing body (SGB) member Agnes Masuku said problems at the school happened before they were elected.
“Some of the staff members had their hands in the cookie jar,” she said.
Masuku said the school infrastructure was in a bad shape because it had not been maintained for decades and was about to fall apart.
She said the unhygienic bathrooms were an issue that she raised before becoming an SGB member.
“It was one of the reasons why I wanted to be part of the committee. The state of the toilets is not a recent problem, it was and still is a decades’ old problem that was neglected,” she said.
Masuku said textbooks were bought but did not explain why the books had not yet been handed out.
“Some of the textbooks of the previous year were never returned, which is why we only topped up what was needed on top of what we now have,” she said.
Masuku said bullying, gangsterism and drug abuse were serious issues in the school.
“We are so tired of negativity about this school, hence we as new parents want to change the image of the school for better,” she said.
Masuku said the school hosted fundraisers and plans to purchase new computers for the CAT class, top up textbooks, get equipment to cut grass and buy the admin block new computers and printers.
“As SGB we are trying to change the school. It’s baby steps for now but we have Die Burger High School in good books,” she said.
The department of education said it will comment on Monday so it could respond comprehensively.